Of Hopes and Dreams
by Gemma Ethan Whitaker
Summary: After his Firebolt is confiscated Harry wanders the halls of Hogwarts and encounters the Patil Twins who give him advice and change his life
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: If you don't know who owns Harry Potter I have to wonder what you're doing here

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Harry Potter was wandering the halls of Hogwarts. The reason for this was that his best friends were fighting again. This time they were fighting over him. Wait that didn't sound right Harry thought, it made it sound like they were fighting over who got to date him. Harry didn't swing that way, not that there was anything wrong with that, but given how out of date the wizarding world was it probably wasn't a good idea to explore options in that direction.

So his best friends were fighting about him, yes that sounded ok. The reason for this was that Harry had received a Firebolt for Christmas, the terribly expensive broom had no card attached which meant they didn't know who had sent it, and with the mass murderer Sirius Black on the loose and supposedly after him, Hermione had found the whole thing suspicious and had reported it their Head of House, Professor McGonagall, who had confiscated the broom until it could be checked for curses.

Ron was upset with Hermione because Professor McGonagall had mentioned that they might strip the broom before it could be returned. This meant that he had been the owner of the best broom in the world for a few short hours and now might never see it again. To Ron this was nothing short of criminal. The way he was acting you would not be mistaken in believing that it was his broom that had been confiscated.

Harry agreed with Hermione that it was suspicious that the broom had no card or other sort of message. But he was upset that she had told McGonagall without telling him that she was doing so first.

So in summary Ron was pissed at Hermione and not talking to her. Hermione was not taking this well and was cooped up in the library. And Harry was wandering the corridors the Hogwarts because he wanted some time to himself.

From an unused classroom up ahead he heard the sound of a pair girls sobbing. Stopping to investigate he poked his head in the door to see the Patil twins holding onto one another, not exactly crying but tearing up a lot.

Deciding to see if there was anything he could do to help he called out "Girls, is there anything I can help you with?"

"No, Harry, not really." Came the reply from Parvati (he could tell by the ties).

"We got a letter this morning saying that our father has only about 8 months left to live and so will be dead before the start of the next school year." Continued Padma.

"So, Harry, there's nothing you can do to make things better, but we could use a shoulder to cry on." Parvati added, moving away from her sister and patting the bit of bench between them.

Harry sat down between the twins, who then scooted up next to him, moving his arms out of the way in the process. Wrapping his arms around them as he had seen people do when comforting others he realized that the shirts worn by the girls were a little on the thin side and this made him feel uncomfortably aware that they were very pretty girls.

Some time later the twins stopped crying and lifted their heads up off of Harry's shoulders. "Feeling better now?" he asked.

"Yes, thanks." Came the reply from Parvati "We knew that it had been coming for a while but to read that he's actually going to die hit us hard."

"Known for a while?" inquired Harry "Can I ask what you mean by that or is it to personal?"

"No, not at all." Responded Padma "Father was hit by a Dark curse in the last war, it wasn't enough to kill him but he was hurt badly enough that he had to leave the Auror Corps. Since then it's only been a matter of time until he died. In a way it's sort of a relief, father's suffering will be over soon, but it did come as a shock and we will still miss him."

"Enough of this depressing talk, sis. Harry, what are you doing here?" Asked Parvati.

"Hermione and Ron are fighting again. I got a Firebolt for Christmas without a card or anything. Hermione told Professor McGonagall thinking it might be from Sirius Black and McGonagall agreed and confiscated it to check. Ron lost it and Hermione retreated into the library. I just wanted some space, I mean I agree with Hermione but she shouldn't have gone behind my back."

"I'll talk to her about that next time I see her. She's a wonderful friend and roommate but she tends to think she knows what's best for everyone." Replied Parvati.

"Now we should start on our homework sis, we don't want to have any outstanding when we go home tomorrow." Padma giving instructions.

"You're going home tomorrow?" Asked Harry.

"Yes, or trying to. With daddy as sick as he is we really didn't want to go home for such a short time but with this news we want to a least spend one night, just in case." Answered Parvati.

"Enough chatting, on with your homework." More instructions from Padma.

With that the girls got up and sat down at a table, pulling out their books, parchment, quills and inkwells.

"I should go" said Harry

"Oh, why?" asked Padma

"Well I don't have any homework to do and I'd just be disturbing you two if I stayed" he responded.

"Then why don't you go get yours and come back?" inquired Padma.

"When I said I didn't have any, I meant that I didn't have any at all. I've learnt that if I get it done early then Hermione can't bug me about doing it. Ron hasn't figured this out yet and keeps bugging me to stop, I think the amount of work he gets done has actually dropped since I figured this out." explained Harry.

"Ooh, good boy Harry." Came from Parvati

"I was sort of surprised that Padma hadn't finished her homework yet." Harry said.

"Oh that's simple, whenever we have a bit of homework that will span a decent break or we've got a lot of time to do it we try to save it for when we can get together. We don't get much time to spend as sisters and this is a good way to get it with drawing too much attention." Answered Padma.

"You know, Harry, with your new attitude and the trouble that seems to follow you I'm surprised that you didn't take Arithmancy and Ancient Runes." Continued Padma.

"Well, when we were picking subjects we didn't get any sort of advice on what to pick." He said before being interrupted by Padma

"I know it's horrible." She interjected

"So in the end I picked the same subjects as Ron, figuring that if I was rubbish at them at least I wouldn't be alone in that." He finished

"That's just silly, Harry," returned Padma. "Let's see now you're taking Divination and Care of Magical Creatures right?" she queried.

"Yes," he replied. "Not that they are really any good, I wish had have had more information on the subjects before I chose. Changing them wouldn't be bad either."

Padma continued her interrogation. "Actually you can change them, but we'll get to that in a bit, after we figure out what subjects you should be taking. Okay then, let's start with Care. Care deals solely with Magical Creatures, things you won't have encountered before now but Ron will have at least heard about, especially with him having a Dragon Handler for a brother. Now does that sound like the two of you are on an even footing?"

"No." Was the sole boy's response.

"It's also only useful if your going to be doing something related to animals, but I doubt that's going to be of much use against the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and given some of the rumors Parv has told me about, you've encountered him a couple of times since you started coming to Hogwarts." She added.

Padma now entered lecture mode, something Harry had seen from Hermione from time to time. "Now, as for Divination, the word, as applied to magic, these days refers to spells that find out any sort of information and these days is divided into four parts. Now Trelawney only teaches stuff that falls under the classical definition, that of seeing into the future, which if you lack the gift of Foresight you can't use at all, so the entire subject is a worthless if you don't have the gift."

This last earned her a growled from Parvati.

"As far as I can tell Trelawney actually has some sort of gift in that regard, but given all the fortune telling stuff she teaches it's probably not all that useful." Padma said in an attempt to placate her sister.

Continuing her lecture Padma said. "Now the other areas of Divination are: The actual art or act of divining which is used to find things in or associated with the Earth, like water, minerals or ley-lines; Scrying or seeing things from afar, if you have a good enough magic link to a person or to an object you can see it, I'm actually surprised that the Ministry hasn't used it to find Sirius Black yet; finally there is the nebulous grouping of spells that inform us of information, these are normally covered by Charms class and include things like _Point Me_, which points to the North, medical diagnosis charms and various detection spells. The ability to scry may actually be useful, we should see if there are any books on it in the library."

Having finished her lecture she paused for a moment before continuing. "Now, having established that your current subject are poorly suited to helping you out, we must figure out which ones are. First there is Muggle Studies, given that you are Muggle raised and that the subject doesn't actually teach anything useful that's out. One on Wizarding Customs might be useful, but it's not taught, and the PureBloods wonder why those of us raised as or by muggles don't follow 'tradition', we don't bloody know it."

Harry was intrigued by this last, it sounded as if she had been raised in such a way.

Padma was entering lecture mode again by continuing her tirade. "Next up is Ancient Runes, comparable to a foreign language course at any muggle school. Now nobody actually speaks Runes, they're just alphabets really and nobody speaks the languages associated with them any more, but many an old tome is written in Runes. Runes are also used in enchanting and warding, you carve the Runes into stones to anchor long term, powerful wards, or into the object being enchanted."

At this point Harry realized that like Hermione, Padma didn't run out of steam easily. "The final subject is Arithmancy. The name is a portmanteau of Arithmos, an ancient Greek word meaning numbers which also gives it's name to Arithmetic, the most basic form of Mathematics and Manteia, which is another ancient Greek word this time meaning Divination."

With this last Harry rolled his eyes, it looked like Parvati was expecting this. "Harry, outside of what you have been taught Divination is actually somewhat respected given it's known limitations. The -mancy suffix however uses an older meaning to looking for answers and these days is used as a generic term to demote a field of magical study. Arithmancy is therefore magical mathematics and is used in Spell Creation and designing Ward schemes and enchantment schematics, but because for most PureBloods Hogwarts is their first foray into education it often has to teach them basic math, the situation with Ron in Care would be reversed here, you've already studied the material while he hasn't."

Padma finally took a breath before continuing. "Having eliminated the subjects that are of no use in your ongoing adventures, Harry, and keeping in mind that you must take at least two electives it is clear that you should be taking Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. The ability to read tomes of ancient knowledge which could contain important information can not be over looked nor can the ability to create Wards and Enchant objects. Arithmancy could eventually grant you the ability to create new spells, Wards and Enchantments, potentially even something that could stop the unstoppable Killing Curse."

At this point Harry simply had to ask a question. "Stop the unstoppable Killing Curse, how could that even be possible?"

"Well you've already done it once, Harry, your scar. Nobody may know how or why but it may be possible to learn." The Ravenclaw supplied.

"Ok," said Harry. "You've told me that I can switch subjects but not how. You've also told me which subjects you think I should switch to but unlike Hermione you've told me WHY, Padma. So I think I'm going to take your advice and switch, but how do I do it?"

"That's actually really simple, Harry, we just have to get you caught up with the other students in the class. There's this complicated bit with getting permission to start doing the catch up but if we present the Arithmancy stuff to Professor McGonagall as a fait accompli, it should be easier for you to transfer into both subjects" she supplied.

"Now," she said continued after the short conversation. "Arithmancy should be easy, most of it you have already covered in your muggle schooling, and I still have blank copies of all the worksheets Professor Vector has handed out, I'll make extra copies for you and that will have you up to date with most of the classwork. Other then that there's only a single essay, four to six hundred words or one to one and a half pages of muggle A4 paper ruled at 8mm, two pages tops, on numbers that have special magical meanings. I'll lend you my textbook when we leave, the first chapter should have enough information for you to do the paper."

"Muggle paper? Word counts?" Harry had to ask, every essay he had done at Hogwarts was on parchment and measured in inches.

Seeing a chance to impart more knowledge to her impromptu pupil, a trait she shared with Hermione but went about it in a much nicer manner, Padma resumed talking. "Professor Vector has a muggle Degree in Mathematics and it influences how she teaches. Using ruled paper makes things so much neater, especially when doing calculations. A word count and fixed sized lines means that people can tell roughly how much work has been done and prevents people from writing big so they don't have to do as much, or even worse from her perspective, those that write small like Hermione and she has to read twice as much. Hermione was devastated when that essay got a P, Professor Vector only read the first two pages and as they didn't cover everything she couldn't give the essay a higher mark. Another thing is the stationary, you'll need muggle pencils, a sharpener, a rubber and ballpoint pens. Thankfully Malfoy, when he heard that he would have "to use all that muggle stuff" to do the class, decided he didn't want to do the class after all."

Harry was astounded. "Hermione failed an essay? By doing too much work? I'll have to remember that next time she bugs me to do extra work. And that thing about writing big to get an essay done faster? I'll have to use that against Snape, if he's going to be a half-arsed teacher I can be a half-arsed student."

This statement had caused Padma's eyes to go wide before she cried out in joy. "That's brilliant Harry, some of us in Ravenclaw have been trying for years to find some way to make Snape actually teach the class and this could be our chance, the onus will be on him to prove that we didn't follow his instructions."

Now she started planning out loud. "Once people start looking at what's going on in his class, we can bring up stuff like his lack of real instruction and lack of even basic safety precautions, never mind poor Neville still being in the standard class. We may even be able to include some of the other grade conscious students, except Hermione she respects teachers too much. We won't be able to set it up in time for this year, but maybe the summer homework will do."

Returning to the previous subject, "Ancient Runes will take longer for you to catch up in, unlike Arithmancy we can't hope to have it done by the time the holidays are over, but next year's another matter. Here take this," she handed him her Arithmancy text, "And start reading with an eye towards that paper. Now these," and she handed him two sheets of parchment. "Are owl order forms for Flourish and Blotts and The Muggle Way, and small store in Diagon Alley that sells muggle products for those that prefer muggle made. This," a third piece of parchment, "Is a list of what you'll need."

Harry thought that she had stopped talking but he was wrong for she started up again. "Harry, just one thing, don't tell Hermione about this OK? I think it would be best to surprise her with it first day back."

Harry had to agree with her, it would be good to surprise Hermione with this.

Harry took this opportunity to ask some of the questions that had been piling up. "They way you talked about Muggle Studies earlier, were the two of you muggle raised or something? And what was that about Neville still being in the standard class?"

"The first is harder, Harry, so I'll answer it last. Neville shouldn't be taking classes with the rest of us due to how often his cauldrons explode, he should be taught in separate so the rest of us can't be hurt, really, there should be some sort of separation so that if one group makes a mistake it doesn't get the rest of us, remember in second year how Goyle's Swelling Solution exploded and showered the whole class?" Harry remember it all to well, seeing as how he was the one to drop the firework into Goyle's cauldron.

"As to if we muggle raised, the answer is yes and no. Our parents are magical but chose to raise us sort of muggle. Our home was warded, but lightly, anti-fire, -Apparition and warning wards where the big ones, so unlike Horwarts, electricity would still work, so we had TV and telephone growing up, you need some pretty impressive wards to stop electricity, the main problem stopping people like the Weasley's getting their house put onto the electricity grid is that muggles can't find it. With a spell cast over us to stop us from telling about the Magical World we could even go to muggle schools." Padma supplied.

Seeing that Padma had finished talking Parvati decided put in her own opinion. "And I for one am thankful that we did, look at some of the PureBloods and how badly prepared for school they are, Ron doesn't know how to do his work, poor Neville doesn't know how to make friends and Draco and his gang, Purest of PureBlood's, are a bunch of anti-social loners."

And with that they all finally stopped talking and the girls started on their homework and Harry started reading the book Padma had given him.

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Thanks to Tommy King his beta'ing, lucindas43302 and Matt Harris for some minor nitpiks and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: If you don't know who owns Harry Potter I have to wonder what you're doing here.

AN: And I forgot to say this last time, but my plan is to post an update on the first on every month

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The next morning shortly after breakfast Harry met the twins in the room from yesterday.

"Harry, good to see you," called out Parvati for Harry could once again tell them apart by ties. "We've got permission to go home for a couple of days and will be leaving in an hour or so to head down to Hogsmeade." "That's great girls." Harry replied.

"How are you going with the Arithmancy text?" Inquired Padma.

"Great. You were right, the first three chapters do only cover stuff I learnt in Muggle Primary School and what I've read has given me some great ideas for that paper you mentioned." Harry answered.

"Three chapters, Harry? That's excellent." Exclaimed Padma.

"Well I swapped the dust cover with one of my Quidditch books and then cast a notice-me-not on the book's content, not the book itself, that way I could read it without people noticing what I'm reading. And , well, it's not like there's much else to do." He replied.

"Impressive work, Harry, given what you did I'm sure you'll do well in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. Now this is my Ancient Runes text." Padma said, handing him a text book. "Now just to show you that me giving you these worksheets, the assignment details and Professor Vector's stationery instructions, I'm going to teach you the charm I use to duplicate them." She continued, pulling out of her bag a pencil case from which she extracted an inkwell she immediately opened. This was followed by two folders, from the first she produced a sheaf of blank paper, the second held papers with writing on them, the top one looked it was the stationary instructions Padma had mentioned.

"Now," Said Padma. "The charm I'm going to teach you is the _Duplicatus Charm_, and it's actually pretty simple, no wand movement, watch." She then tapped her wand against the stack that was topped with the stationary instructions and presumably the assignment and the worksheets as well and said "_Duplicatus _", dipped her wand in the inkwell and then tapped it against the stack of blank paper, which was suddenly covered in ink, turning it into a duplicate of the stationary instruction.

Picking up the second stack of paper, the one she handed it to Harry, telling him "Here are your copies, Harry. Before you had the completed sheets in you can use them to practice the charm, you really should be making copies of every assignment you had in and every letter you send, just in case someone tries to use them against you somehow."

"Thanks, Padma, but I will only need the worksheets and assignment sheet, you should keep a hold of the rest of your stuff and I'll give you your Arithmancy text back because I sent Hedwig off with the order forms last night so she should be back tonight. And I will take your advice about making copies of everything." He said.

"Don't be silly, Harry, I'm only staying overnight so I won't need my stuff and you will get more out of it. Now if you manage to get all your work done, and read the first two chapters of the Runes book before we get back, I'll see about you getting a reward." Padma said.

"That's one thing Hermione doesn't do, give out rewards for us getting our work done" Harry responded.

"That's Hermione for you, she automatically assumes that you should learn something even without telling you WHY you need to learn it, a bit like the teachers here, not telling you what the electives help you do." Padma informed Harry "Now, I have to ask: stationary instructions?" Harry asked.

"Professor Vector prefers us to use certain colors for certain purposes and all calculations are to be done in grey-lead in case corrections are needed." There was a short pause in the conversation until Harry said, "OK then, girls, I think that's it, so goodbye and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye, Harry" the twins said together, which was the first time Harry had ever seen them say something together and then they walked out of the room.

-/-/-/-/-

The Patil residence

As soon as the twins came in the door their mother called out. "Girls, I know you'll want to see your father now that the two of you are home, so as soon as you've put your bags away in your room go and see him in his study." With this the twins rushed off to their room, deposited their bags on their bed before racing off to see their father.

Slowing down just before they reached the door to their father's study. Parvati knocked on the door and was rewarded with an "Enter" from within.

Opening the door and walking inside the twins saw their father sitting at his desk.

"Padma, Parvati, Welcome home. How long will you be staying?" Their father greeted them.

"Just overnight, father, we wanted a chance to see you at least once more and say goodbye in case anything happens to you while we are at school for the rest of the year. We may have had a breakthrough with our situation and don't want to be away from school too long." Responded Parvati.

"Ah, yes your situation, so who is this young man whose eyes have been caught by my darling girls?" He inquired.

"Harry Potter, father. The Potter Heir and rumored Black Heir, the so-called Boy-Who-Lived." Answered Parvati.

"The Potter Heir? Yes that would be good, if he is the Black Heir then he could have two wives, that would simplify things. I think if I do leave as soon as the Healer's think I will my biggest regret will be that I won't have had the chance to see the two of you married." "Well, father, if everything goes as Padma and me are planning you will see us married." Stated Parvati.

"Girls, I don't want you two rushing into getting married just so that I can see it happen to you before I die."

"Father, while we are adjusted to fact that we most likely have to share a husband and our first time with him. We are not interested in each other and would like it if we were not his only wives so we will always have someone to be with without resorting to each other." "Girls, what are you two planning?" Inquired their father, wondering where this was headed.

"Father, you, mother and Nalini have taught us that that a woman being a man's concubine doesn't make her any less of a person." Replied Parvati.

"Girls, why did I move the entire family from India to England?"

"To give us control over the man we married, so that we didn't become a trophy to some man older than you, so that we could have the minimal amount of sexual contact with each other as possible, Yes?" Said Parvati.

"Yes," their father admitted.

"Well like we said we don't want to be our husbands only wives and we feel we would have an easier time convincing other girls to join in as concubines if we were already such." Explained Parvati.

"Plus if our husband married us under different family names it might cause problems with our situation" Added Padma.

"Alright, girls, I understand. This is what you want and you may have a point, Padma." Said their father admitting defeat. "Do you want me to write up the contract for the two of you?" "No, father, I'll write up the contract, I want to control its exact wording so that nothing can come back and cause problems later on." Replied Padma.

-/-/-/-/-

The following day, late afternoon, Patil/Potter Private classroom

When the door opened Harry looked up from the Ancient Runes text he was reading to see that the twins had returned.

"Hi, girls, welcome back" He called out.

"It's good to be back, Harry." Returned Parvati.

"How goes the work, Harry?" Inquired Padma.

"All done," Harry replied pointing to a stack of paper on the table next to him. "And I was just about to start reading chapter three of my new Runes book. Your copies of the Arithmancy and Runes books are over there, along with all the stationary you lent me." Pointing to a pair of books and a pencil case some distance away.

"Good work, Harry. You have a quick re-read through of chapters one and two while I give these a once over. Once I've down that, you can try using the _Duplicatus Charm_." Said Padma picking up the pile of paper.

A Short Time Later.

"That's _ehwaz_ it means _partnership_." Said Harry in response to the rune Padma had just drawn on the board.

"Well done, Harry. I give you an Exceeds Expectations." Said Padma. "Now, about your reward."

With this she looked at her sister who nodded her head. Both girls then shucked off their robes revealing that they weren't wearing their jumpers before sitting down in Harry's lap, one on each leg. One arm and leg each went behind Harry while the other went behind their sister's back. The sisters then leaned forward and pressed their bodies against Harry and started nuzzling the sides of his face. Harry was once again made aware of how thin the shirts girls wore were. At this point Harry's pants started feeling uncomfortable.

"Reach around behind us and get a good grip on our bottoms, Harry." Said Parvati. "Yes, that's it."

"You know, Harry, in India twins are considered a gift from the gods and as such female twins are normally married to a single man. Now we aren't attracted to one another but we are curious about what such a relationship is like." Padma whispered into his ear.

"And it's such a shame that you don't get to go to Hogsmeade, Harry. Most students use it as a jumping off point to start dating but your missing out on that. So we thought it might be fun for us to start dating you." Purred Parvati into Harry's ear.

"Harry, if possible we don't want anyone to know that the two of us are dating you, people may say some nasty things. If someone does find out something we'll try and pretend that you're only dating one of us and the other is acting as chaperone, OK? Now, I thing it's time that you had a cold shower and then went to see Professor McGonagall." Padma, talking into his other ear.

And with that Harry fled the room pausing only to grab his bag and the stack of papers.

"So sis, did you cast the spell?" Asked Parvati.

"Yes I did." Replied Padma walking over to her bag, pulling out two plastic muggle dildos and tapping them with her wand, which caused them to grow. "Here you go, your full scale model of Harry Potter's penis." She said handing one of the now larger pieces of plastic to her sister.

"Merlin, he's huge, how am I going to fit that in my mouth, let alone anywhere else. I don't think I've ever hated that Virginity Protection Charm as much as I do right now. Practicing with this before being with Harry would be a good idea." Ranted Parvati.

"I don't. This way we know there may be a problem and can take steps to deal with it, like ensuring Harry knows how to bed two women at once before he beds us."

-/-/-/-/-

One Cold Shower Later, Professor McGonagall's Office

"Ah, Mr. Potter, what can I do for you?" Asked the Scots Transfiguration Mistress.

"A friend has convinced me that I should be doing different electives than those I have been doing and has been helping me get caught up in Arithmancy, I have completed all the work Professor Vector and have come to see you about getting my electives changed." Answered Harry.

"I see, Mr. Potter. You do realise that one of the Arithmancy classes clash with your Care of Magical Creatures class?"

"Yes but I feel this may be important enough to my future, if possible I would like to resume Care next year."

"Let me just talk to Professor Vector." Said Professor McGonagall. And with that she walked over to the fireplace, grabbed a pinch of Floo Powder out of the dish on mantlepiece, through the powder onto the flames, called out "Septima Vector" and stuck her head into the fire.

A moment later she got back up and said to Harry "Mr. Potter, Professor Vector will be here in a moment to examine your work." And with that the door opened revealing the Arithmancy Mistress.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, I always wondered why I never saw you in my class, with all the trouble you get into it might teach you something that you need someday." She said by way of greeting.

"Well we weren't given ANY advice when picking subjects, so I picked the same ones as my friend Ron." Harry explained.

At this point the newcomer started staring at the Head of Gryffindor House. "Well I know for a fact that both your parents took Arithmancy, it's why your father was so good at Transfiguration with how general most of the spells are, knowing how they WORK makes using them easier. Your mother was like Ms. Granger but less inclined to do silly things, such as try and take all subjects at once, she also took Ancient Runes as well I believe."

Hearing about his parents had just made Harry's day.

"Now, Mr. Potter, I believe Professor McGonagall said that you had some work for me?"

"Yes, here it is." He said and handed her the stack of papers.

"Very good, Mr. Potter this looks like all the work I have given my third year students so far this year, if you two will give me a couple of minutes I will grade all of this for you and let you know if you can transfer in."

And with that she sat down on a chair next to Professor McGonagall's desk. The first thing she did was flick her wand at the stack of papers and mutter something and her breath before pulling out a pen and start grading through the sheets.

"Professor McGonagall, what spell did Professor Vector just cast on my work?" Asked Harry.

"An author identification charm, they're are used to see who really wrote something, it's why you are doing better than Mr. Weasley, we know that Ms. Granger is only correcting the mistakes you make where as Mr. Weasley often manages to get Ms. Granger to provide more substantial help."

Several minutes later Professor Vector looked up from the papers she was grading and said "I would be happy to have Mr. Potter in my class, Minerva. Mr. Potter, there are a few things I wish to discuss with you, so if you would follow me." And with that she walked out the door causing Harry to follow along behind her.

Once they were safely out of ear shot of any one Professor Vector started speaking "Mr. Potter, when I used that Author Identification Charm on your worksheets I noticed that one of the Miss Patil's Magical Signature was lingering on the worksheets, my guess is Padma, can you tell my what that is about?"

"It's pretty simple really, Professor, Padma's the one who made those copies for me." Harry answered.

"She made them? Then they're conjurations? That's very impressive for a third year and it could be a problem, conjurations don't last and I'm going to need to hang onto these until at least the end of the year." She responded.

"No, Padma used the _Duplicatus Charm_, she had blank pieces of paper, uncompleted worksheets and an ink well, she tapped the worksheets and said the incantation, dipped her wand in the ink and then tapped the blank sheets which then became new worksheets to teach me how to cast it, she even had me make copies of those before handing them in. She's advised my to make copies of all my assignments and letters in the future." Harry replied.

"Ah yes, the _Duplicatus Charm_, I use it quite a bit myself, the fact hat it only makes monochrome copies is a downside from time to time, but it was designed for legal purposes so you can trace copies made rather easy, could be quite useful for you to know, and the advice to make copies of all your completed assignments and letters is good. Now a somewhat important question: Did Padma or anyone else for that matter provide you with any help with completing the worksheets?" Asked the Arithmancy Mistress.

"No," answered Harry "Padma and Parvati weren't even in the castle at the time, they left to visit their dying father."

"Good, that should make it hard for anyone to make any problems about your transfer. Now Professor McGonagall mentioned that you said a friend had convinced you to change subjects, would I be correct in guessing that Padma was that friend? And that Ms. Granger does not know that you are transferring?" Inquired Harry's newest teacher.

"Yes Padma was the friend that convinced me to change and no Hermione doesn't know yet." He supplied.

"Good, now if you could avoid telling Ms. Granger before the next class that would be excellent, several staff member have noticed Ms. Granger's tendency to supply more than is needed when answering a question or writing a paper and we have have been looking for a chance to make our point to her, the fact that you are now doing better then her in a class may help make that point to her, so if you have any trouble keeping up come and see me." With this latest statement Harry realized Professor Vector was a bit like Hermione and Padma, she could go off on somewhat long lectures.

"I've looked at the later material, Professor, and I don't think I'll have any trouble with it, about the only subject I am having trouble with is Potions." Harry answered.

"Yes, as a Pureblood myself I find it most amusing that the one proponent of Pureblood supremacy on staff would be thrown out of a muggle school for his poor teaching methods, heck with his criminal record he would never have been hired to begin with. Now Hogwarts Rules say that I can't actually teach you potions myself, but I will give you a list of books that you should read to help you, they were recommended by the Potions Master before Snape and the Slytherin House Library still stocks them and an important pointer: making potions isn't covered by the Reasonable Decree for Underage Sorcery.

"If you ever want to discuss the Headmaster's other failings my door is always open, but I think you had better run along and tell Padma that you got into my class."

-/-/-/-/-

5 minutes later, Patil/Potter Private classroom

"Girls," Harry cried out opening the door. "Good news, I got in. Padma, Professor Vector spotted your spell work, so she knows you're involved and wants us to keep quiet about me changing subjects until class starts, I think she wants to shock Hermione."

"That's great, Harry," the twins exclaimed.

"Yeah, she also gave me a couple of pointers for potions, there's this list of books she going to give me and she said that potion making isn't covered by the Reasonable Decree for Underage Sorcery. She also said something about seeing her if I wanted to 'discuss the Headmaster's other failings' whatever that means." Harry added.

"So when will she give you this list of books, Harry?" Asked Padma, as a Ravenclaw knowledge meant a lot to her.

"She didn't say, but I found out that the teachers know about Hermione's bad habits and she wants us to keep this from Hermione so I'm guessing first day of class to keep Hermione on her toes." Harry answered.

"Enough talking about Hermione's problems you two, I want to hear all about Harry's adventures." Interjected Parvati.

"Do you really want to hear about them?" Harry inquired in a very meek voice.

"Yes I do, Harry. I want to hear the sort of trouble my boyfriend gets into on a regular basis." Retorted Parvati.

"Ok, it's just that I don't like talking about them, it makes me sound like Malfoy." Harry responded in a rather timid tone.

"No it doesn't, Harry. These are things that you have actually done and therefore should be proud of, so quit stalling and start telling us"

Sometime later

"Harry, are you telling me that there is the whole carcass of a one thousand year old Basilisk that you personally slew beneath this castle?" Padma suddenly interjected.

"Yes, at least as far as I know, nobody else can open the chamber and if they did they would still have to get past the cave-in." Harry replied

"Given the temperatures, magical nature and age of the beast it should not have started decaying yet. As far as I know nobody offers processing of Basilisk carcasses, but Gringotts does offer an intermediary service for arranging the processing unusual animal carcasses. You'll need to write to them and see if they are interested in acting on your behalf to find someone prepared to process the carcass and find out their fee for the search and likely negotiating on your behalf. Once you have an initial agreement with them, they will send you a harvesting portkey/tag, attach it to the corpse and then activate it, the Goblins will then assess it and send you a letter with expected sales proceeds, you then reply telling them how you want things handled, what parts you want sold and how much to be sold, and what vault you want the proceeds and unsold parts to be stored in. I would suggest opening a new vault instead of using your trust vault, that way you can access the funds without restrictions.

"But first we must go down to the Chamber of Secrets and examine the carcass to see if it is still worth something, it's getting kind of late now so we'll do it tomorrow morning."

With this latest lecture Harry realized that Padma's rants/lecture were different from Hermione's. Where as Hermione was trying to show you how smart she was and talked down to you like you were a small child, Padma's were more like a teacher, sticking mostly to things she thought you needed to know and aimed at informing you, Harry thought it was a nice change.

* * *

Thanks to Tommy King his beta'ing and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of


	3. Chapter 3: The Basilisk

The following morning after breakfast, Atrium to The Chamber of Secrets

"I'm glad that Myrtle wasn't in, she always acts weirdly towards me." Harry said with a massive sigh of relief.

"I'd like to know what all those pipes where about, all the amenities in that bathroom and all others that I've seen here at Hogwarts looked like modern muggle ones and plumbing was pretty much a lost art when the castle was built. Plus why would the access to Slytherin's, who history records as being male, private addition, I suppose, be in a girls bathroom?" Asked Padma.

"Security maybe?" Answered Harry. "And the castle has always seemed pretty alive to me, maybe its got some sort of upgrade thing going on, when the Muggles developed better sanitation the castle altered it's bathrooms to match. Can't say why nobody noticed when they changed but."

"Who actually _knows_ anything about the castle? Maybe part of it's magic stops people from remember details about its architecture when it changes, think about all the tricks to getting around that we all learnt first year that nobody told us about and that we never thought of telling any of the students of started after us, maybe part of the castles magic stops you from doing it, maybe that same magic stopped people from noticing that the bathrooms had changed." Said Parvati.

"Sis, that sounds like something I would say." Replied Padma.

"I'm not dumb Pad, just not interested in study for studies sake, what I am interested in is talking to people, and people aren't talking to one another about this." Parvati returned fire.

"Girls," said Harry "Please don't fight."

Turning to the shed skin Padma observed, "Well this first skin looks pretty well preserved, this bodes well for the actual carcass being intact given how small it is. Located outside the chamber like this I'd say this skin dates from the days of the founders, it's not like the Basilisk's been out much since then."

"Looks like it would make a nice leather." Added Parvati.

"Where's the tunnel gone?" Harry asked, looking at the rockfall.

"I'm guessing when Fawkes flew you out it caused a further collapse, the rockfall looks intact, that suggests nobody else has been down here." Said Padma.

"But sis, how are we going to get past?" Asked Parvati in response.

"Simple, we transfigure a tunnel through the rock fall, it should be pretty easy, we're just changing the way things are arranged, nothing major, theoretically it would easier then that matchstick in first year but for the size. We cast _Transmogrify_ to create a tunnel not much bigger then we would need to crawl through, no need to risk magical exhaustion, by _moving_ the rock out of the way, creating smooth walls that hopefully support the weight of the surrounding rock, it should be at about chest hight making it easier to cast and access. Why don't you cast the spell Harry and if you don't get all the way through there's something that Parv and I _might_ be able to do that would enable us cast a spell together and make it more powerful but it's only a theory so I want you to go first Harry, to provide us with a starting point, OK?" Answered Padma.

"Sure" Replied Harry

"Just remember to focus on the tunnel as I described it, Harry, the rock moves out of the way to make a tunnel not much bigger then we need to crawl through with smooth walls that support the surrounding rock at chest hight." Padma instructed him.

_Transmogrify_ said Harry, using the general purpose transfiguration spell and concentrating hard, as he said this the rock at about chest height, right where his wand was pointing at the rockfall, the rock started flowing away from the point where Harry's wand pointed at the rock face until there was a tunnel just over 1 metre across with a sold rock wall half that thick going some ways into the rockfall. When Harry stepped forward the runnel went further into the rock fall, one step, two and then he stopped. Panting he lowered his wand and said, "Sorry, I can see that I didn't get all the way through and that's all I can do for now."

"Don't worry Harry, you must have gotten at least halfway through the rocks, Parv and I will give it a shot now, by the time we're done you should have recovered enough to give it another shot." Padma reassured the boy, no young man, who was clearly disappointed in his own work.

"But what are we going to do sis?" Asked Parvati. Harry had to admit that he was curious on this point as well.

"There's been some recent studies that suggest twins such as us share a split magical core so we should be able to cast a spell together for more power." Answered Padma.

"And how are we going to do that?" Inquired Parvati, she was used to her sister having all the answers ready.

"Give me a moment, okay? This wasn't something I thought we would be doing any time soon and it's not just a matter of us casting the spell at the same time, we've got to want it, to focus on it, and there's the matter of symmetry, how we positioned relative to each other." Retaliated Padma, apparently she didn't like her sister expecting to provide all the answers.

A moment later Padma started talking again. "OK, I think I've got it, if we lie down face to face in the tunnel and hold the others wand hand with our off hand it should work, so take off your robe."

"Sis, I'm not taking off my clothes with Harry here." Retaliated Parvati.

Harry had to admit, but not out loud, that the thought of seeing the twins naked was something he liked a lot.

"Parv, has anyone ever told you that you have a very dirty mind? I said take off your robe, I wasn't instructing you to dis-robe, they'll only get in the way crawling done the tunnel." Padma chastised her sister. "Harry, after we've gone in wait a moment and then follow us in, it's probably better if you take off your robe as well, and leave the broom behind."

Padma chastising her sister followed by her instructions caused Harry to snap out of the flunk Parvati's outburst had put him in. Quickly leaning the broom they had borrowed from the school's stock against the rock-face he started taking of his robe, noticing that the twins had already completed the task while he had been occupied with the broom and he realized that they weren't wearing their jumpers again, 'Do they ever wear them?' Harry wondered. He also thought that their skirts had gotten shorter some how because there was now a gap between the top of their socks above the knee and the bottom of their skirts, not that he was complaining, he liked the way the twins dressed, but he wasn't going to say anything either for fear it would cause the girls to change the way they dressed and he _liked_ how they dressed just fine.

Just then he heard one of the twins, he was guessing Padma given that she was first in, cast _Lumos_, well, it wasn't like much light would be getting into the tunnel.

Having finished taking off his robe, folding it up and putting it on some of the rocks to keep it up off the wet ground Harry turned back to the twins. Padma had already climbed into the tunnel and Parvati was starting to follow her. After a few seconds Padma's voice called out, "Come on in Harry, it looks to be safe."

Deciding that he had no reason to wait any more before following them and walked over to the tunnel. Once he was at the mouth he realized that it wasn't round like he first thought but rather a square with rounded corners and curved sides, this he thought wound make crawling though even easier while causing any water that got into the tunnel to pool along the middle of the tunnel. Climbing in Harry saw Parvati just ahead of him were crawling had forced her short skirt to hug her bottom and reveal even more of her legs, moving ahead Harry decided to keep his head down and not say anything so as to avoid upsetting the twins.

After crawling for about thirty seconds Harry felt his head bump into Parvati who called out "Harry, weren't you watching were you where going?"

"Ah, no sorry, with us crawling like this I was getting a pretty good look at your bottom and I didn't want to upset you." He answered. "Why have we stopped any way?"

"Harry, you're my boyfriend now, you're allowed to look at my butt." Responded Parvati.

"End of the tunnel." Came Padma's answer to Harry's question. "Harry, I'm going extinguish my _Lumos_ in a moment so can you cast it so we can all see what we're doing?"

"Yeah, sure Padma." Was Harry's response. _Lumos_ he said, casting the spell and lighting up the tunnel some more.

_Nox_ then came from Padma, dropping the amount of light down to what was available before.

Next Harry heard the sound of movement ahead of him, past Parvati he could see that Padma had dropped down onto her stomach and was rolling over in place. When she had finished giving instructions, a bit like Hermione, Harry liked it.

"Parv, crawl on top of me." Instructed Padma before pausing whilst Parvati moves forward. "Yes, that's it, now lie down. Good." This gave Harry a view part way up Parvati's skirt, he couldn't see anything he really shouldn't but her legs were straight out behind her and her skirt was not falling straight down any-more, thankfully she was lower down then he was.

And both of them stopped doing anything.

"Ah, girls could we hurry this up?" Moaned Harry, he really didn't want to have to bring up the matter of him being able to see further up Parvati's skirt.

"Sorry, Harry." Responded Padma. "It's just that the two of us, like this, it's rather nice. Now, in a moment we will reach out ahead with both arms sis, grasp with our off hands the other's wand-hand and wand, then on the count of three cast _Transmogrify_ together, the trick here will be not just imagining the tunnel extending but imagining us both casting the spell at the same time, our magic coming together, out spells merging to become one stronger spell, OK?"

"Yes" Answered Parvati.

"OK, on three then." Said Padma and then she started counting "One." At this point Parvati joined her in counting. "Two." They said together. "Three" They finished together, this was immediately followed by _**Transmogrify**_ as they cast the spell together.

"Ok, this is" Came from Parvati

"Weird" Finished Padma

"What's the matter girls?" Asked Harry

"For a moment there we became one. I think when our magic merged, so did we." Answered Padma

"With that experience I think I know how the Weasly twins manage their dreaded Twin-Speak and I really don't like the implications." Added Parvati.

"What do you mean?" Asked Padma. "Oh, I see know, I think we might still be connected a bit. Now lets see how well we did. If you can climb off of me sis we can get started."

And with that Parvati got back up, for which Harry was rather thankful as he could no longer see quite so far up her skirt. What he hadn't counted on was that Padma's skirt would be pushed up her body by all of this causing him to see a brief glimpse of Ravenclaw blue before he turned away. While he was turning away he heard _Lumos_ from up ahead, given that Padma hadn't done it he knew it was Parvati.

"Harry" inquired Padma. "What's the matter? OH, nothing you're not allowed to see, but good boy for looking away." This was followed by more rustling. When Harry turned around again she was back on her hands and knees. "Coming Harry?"

"Yeah, lets see how well you two did." Was his reply.

A few seconds later Harry knew they reached the new end of the tunnel because he bumped into Padma this time.

"How well did the paired casting work?" He asked

"I'd say we did better then what we would have got if we had both made separate attempts but only about a quarter of what Harry did." Answered Padma. "Harry, you put out your wand while me and Parv drop down, then you crawl over us and cast _Transmogrify_ again."

"Ok, _Nox_" said Harry while the twins dropped down. When he crawled over Padma he knew he had been right about water pooling at the bottom of the tunnel, for he could feel that the back of her shirt was wet. One he was over Padma he crawled on top of Parvati and cast _Transmogrify_ again, before re-casting _Lumos_ and heading down the tunnel. 20 seconds later he came to the end and realized that instead of coming to a wall he was through the rockfall. Climbing down he turned around to help the girls down and he saw just how right he was about the water pooling in the channel along the bottom of the tunnel. As a result he saw just how well developed the twins where, along with their choice in mature clothing and House pride.

"Ah, girls," He said. "You two need to use some drying charms."

"Actually Harry, we shouldn't. The personal drying charm doesn't work on clothes and using the clothes drying charm on clothes currently being worn is a bad idea. A warming would be much appreciated however." Said Padma who then put her arms behind her back, stuck her chest out and stepped towards Harry, Parvati soon followed suit.

"Ah, girls, what are you doing?" Asked Harry.

"It's never a good idea to cast a spell on yourself Harry, and given what we just did casting one on each other probably comes to close yourself for comfort." Answered Padma.

"Ok then, _Therma_" Said Harry, casting warming charms on the girls.

"Shall we proceed onwards ladies?" Asked Harry, bowing to the girls and moving towards to door to the chamber proper "_Open_".

"Look at the size of that snake." Called out Padma. "It's got to be at least five foot wide and one hundred and twenty feet long, and it looks perfectly preserved, I wonder just how many other skins it's shed over the years, oh, I wish I knew how much Basilisk hide sells for."

"I've never heard anything about Basilisk leather being used in clothing so I doubt that there's much of a market for Basilisk leather, but it still very pretty so it should sell very well. You should probably keep some Harry, I'm sure any woman or women you end up spending your life with would like to have something made out of this skin." Said Parvati.

"Wait, women? Are you saying I can have multiple wives?" Asked Harry.

"Possibly, Harry. Given what you told us about your upbringing you didn't know anything about the magical world until you received your Hogwarts Letter, right?" Inquired Padma.

"Yeah" Answered Harry.

"OK, you know of the Wizengamot?" Padma probed deeper into how much Harry did and didn't know of the Wizarding World.

"Yes" Harry replied, wondering where this was going.

"Well the Wizengamot is a bit like the Muggle House of Lords, the seats on it are hereditary and normally entitled, several belong to the heads of the Families Magical. Yes, I can see the look on your face showing that you don't know what that means so I'll explain. A Families Magical is sort of like a clan, tribe or the Muggle Royal Family, in that it is made up of a group of people who are all related to one another by blood plus anyone who has married into the family but there is something else, even beyond the Family Grimoire and Head of House/signet rings that most established magical families have but also something called the 'Family Magic' for lack of a better term. Not much is known about the 'Family Magic's', they tend to be rather rare, the only people that could study them would be members of the various Families Magical, and even then a member could only study their own 'Family Magic', so comparing different 'Family Magic's' is impossible, or almost so, plus studying them is not something done in case the 'Family Magic' is damaged, which could end very poorly given how powerful they are.

"Yes, Harry, I know I'm starting to sound like Hermione, but there's a lot of information here that you need to know. Now, what is known about 'Family Magic's' is that they provide a pool of energy for Family members to draw upon in times of dire need, they are also said to provide information to members of the Family beyond what is in the Grimoire, even extending to knowledge and advice from dead Family members, some even say that the Family Grimoire and Rings are merely physical manifestations of this magic. The most well know thing about 'Family Magic's' are the By-Laws because they are made by people, they are essentially the Families rules for members, they also often cover who is a member and succession of the title of Head of House. When somebody holds multiple titles they are legally two or more people, depending on how many titles you have, and thus might be able to take multiple wives if he so chooses. Someone who is head of more then one Families Magical more so due the Treaties between the Families and the Families By-Laws might be required to take one wife for each Family if he is head of. The three most well known Families Magical are the Potters; the Bones, Susan in our year is the only surviving member of the main branch, when she comes of age she will become Head of House, meanwhile her only surviving relative, her aunt, acts as regent; and the Blacks, yes the same Blacks as Sirius Black, the man who betrayed your parents. Now how this effects you is thus: Obviously you are the Head of House for the Potters, or will be when you come of age, the interesting part is your grandmother, one Dorea Potter nee Black, making you a Black as well." At this point Padma had stopped to catch her breath, allowing Harry to say something.

"Wait, do you mean to say my name should be Potter-Black or something?" Harry asked.

"No, not unless special conditions are meet, which I was just getting to." Answered Padma. "Now, the last Head of House Black was Arcturus Black, grand-father to Sirius, now he died in 1991, several months before we started Hogwarts, with no known Heir. Sirius was his only surviving male descendant but with Sirius having betrayed your parents and been sentenced to life in Azkaban, he can not inherit. Arcturus' will did not specify an Heir, nor could it as that is under the control of the Family Magic, neither does it give us any clues as to who the next Head of House is as the bulk of Arcturus' personal wealth was 'To be held in trust for the next Lord Black.' That last is the formal title for the Head of House Black. Now Arcturus' closest male relative at death, according to standard inheritance laws, is the great-grandson of his uncle Cygnus, Draco Malfoy. Now it is a known fact that Draco did not inherit the Head of House position, tests were run to determine if he was and they came back negative. The most popular explanation has to do with how the Malfoy's came to be, they were once part of a Families Magical back in France, but the first Malfoy was entrusted by his Head of House with something important but betrayed that trust, as punishment he was Magically Disowned, which is where someone is kicked out in such a way that the Family Magic's don't recognize them as belonging to that family, and cursed him with the name Malfoy, which means 'Bad Faith' in French, until he or his descendants did something to show that they were trustworthy again. People think that with that history Draco can't be a member of House Black until the curse is lifted. So people began wondering who the next Lord Black would be and thought immediately turned to the only other known male to have Black blood: you Harry, via your grand mother, Dorea Potter nee Black, weirdly you're Cygnus' grandson, but because Dorea was Cygnus' fourth child and Draco is descended from hit first he gets priority. Now if you are the next Lord Black that would make you both Lord Potter and Lord Black, or Lord Potter-Black in all but the strictest of legal circumstances where the legal fiction that you are two different people must be maintained, thus you could have two wives, one would be Lady Potter while the other would be Lady Black."

"Well then, it's a good thing that I'm dating the two of you right now, who wants what title? And being related to Malfoy? Yuck" Said Harry.

"Not so fast Harry." Responded Padma. "That's not quite what we want from you Harry, there's some complications on our side plus it's likely that the Black Family has a By-Law stating that the Lady Black can only be a Proper Pureblood English Witch. However I think I've given you enough to digest for now. There should be other shed skins around here somewhere, lets see if we can find them and then head back up. I can explain things later."

Heading up into the statue, guessing that any more skins would be up there, seeing as how the Basilisk came from there when Riddle summoned it and guessing that that was where it lived, they found it connected to the pipe network all around them, including both the Chamber proper and it's atrium, causing Parvati to comment once more on Hogwarts weird architecture and Padma to speculate that the first skin they had found dated from just after the Founders'. All together they found another 9 skins, one for every ten feet the Basilisk had grown.

Getting out of the Chamber was an interesting experience. Padma said that wearing their robes while trying to fit three of them on the broom wouldn't work. Considering that she was the one who knew the most about clothes and Harry noting how different they were to his Quiditch robes, the later had cuffs more like a jumper to stop them getting in the way of using your hands and were designed to be closed compared to the normal school robes, agreed with her. Tying their robes to the end of the broom, Harry got it hovering and then climbed on, Padma then proceed to get on in front of him and grab his hands, which where far to close to certain parts of her body given that they where sitting upright, not hunched over for speed, for stability. Parvati got on behind Harry, reached her hands in front of both him and her sister and proceed the hug them both tightly. Meaning Harry was sandwiched in between the girls and feeling every curve of their bodies, including Parvati's breast poking into his back.

Once they got back up to the bathroom the twins went into the stalls to take off their shirts, dry them off and put them back on, Harrys' wasn't wet enough to require attention. Then all three of them put their school robes back on and went to their classroom to talk some more. Mytle was still out when they left, for which Harry was once again thankful for.

Thanks to Jonas for typo busting. alexcorvin1980 for details on the Black family and pointing me towards even more, scretch for some minor nitpiks and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of


	4. Hopes, Dreams

Disclaimer: If you don't know who owns Harry Potter I have to wonder what you're doing here.

Potter/Patil Classroom, immediately after last scene

"OK girls, you mentioned some 'complications' on your part back in the Chamber that prevents you from marrying under different names, assuming that I have them of course." Asked Harry.

"Now Harry, in Magical India it's normal for a spell to be cast on female babies shortly after birth to protect their virginity until their wedding night, when it was cast on me first as I was first born, both of us glowed blue, signalling that the spell had been properly cast on both of us. The best that the wise men that father consulted could figure out was that we would need to marry the same man and lose our virginity to him together. We don't find the thought of such an act disgusting, which lends credence to the theory." Padma informed Harry.

"Now, remember how we mentioned that female twins often end up married to the same man in India?" Asked Parvati. To this Harry nodded his head. "Well when father heard that we would most likely need to marry the same man he got the entire family out of India as soon as he could, he didn't want to end up selling us to some 60 year old man as sex slaves but rather some man of OUR choosing, preferably our own age. Daddy however mucked up, how many men can have two wives, Harry?"

"Well, if I am the next Lord Black, I can have two can't I." Answered Harry.

"Really, Harry?" Responded Parvati. "I see Lord Potter having one wife and Lord Black having another and while they might be the same person, it's not one man having multiple wives, given that something really bad could happen to us if we muck this up we aren't keen on testing it like that."

"Thankfully we have another option, that of concubines. A concubine is a girl or woman who has been sold via Magical Contract as if she where goods, these days it's normally used as a form of marriage or a way for a woman to bear a man a child as if she were his wife." Padma informed Harry.

"NO" cried Harry, "that's wrong, people shouldn't be treated like that." He suddenly found himself in uncomfortable proximity to the twins again.

"Harry, calm down." Commanded Padma. "It's not like that. As time has progressed so has to institution of concubinage, in Roman times a concubine was seen as a woman who was not quite a man's wife. When muggle religions, which never really caught on in the magical world, started spreading the idea of marriage being between one man and one woman, the wizarding world at the time still clung to Greek and Roman ideas of relationships, and the formal ceremonies to seal it and their consequences marriage fell out of favour to concubinage."

This last had caused Harry to clam down a bit and start talking normally. "It did, why?"

"Several reasons." Answered Padma. "Marriage became part of the religion, which wizards didn't prescribe to. The Vows taken during wedding ceremonies become Oaths that bind any magical taking them, so a woman's vow to 'love, honour and obey' her husband becomes binding on her for the rest of her life. It wasn't until the development of anti-Oath wards that wizards started using these ceremonies, which led to the terms magical and non-magical weddings, the former don't have the wards applied and divorce isn't possible. Now this also applies to why religion never gained much ground in the wizarding world but the religions normally came of with a moral code or set of ethics that they expected believers to follow, including those married by priests of the religion, these normally included the one man and one woman concept I mentioned before."

Parvati chose this moment to speak up. "Pad, that's very interesting, but it's not making Harry feel any better, maybe you should explain it to him in detail later. Now, Harry, yes the whole thing does sound rather bad but consider this: Our father, Ajeet, in addition to our mother, Chandrani, has a concubine, Nalini, who he loves just as much as our mother, and who in the eyes of the law is also his wife in addition to being his concubine."

Upon hearing this Harry calmed down a lot, but not completely and said this: "He does? How does your mother feel about it? How do you feel about it?"

"Yes he does. Mother thinks it the most wonderful thing he's ever done for her, carrying us was very hard on her, she almost died in childbirth and her post-natal depression was near suicidal, they both wanted more children but father wasn't prepared to put her through something like that again, this way they get the children they want without her having to pretend that someone else's children are hers, if she has problems she can talk to someone about it. As for us? Nalini is like a second mother, we even call her hosma, a term Padma found in a book that means undefined parent. Plus this way it should be easier to convince girls to marry you." Parvati told him.

"More wives?" Asked Harry having calmed down completely at this point. "How many do you want to have?"

"Well, Harry," said Parvati "while we will be having sex with both you and each other at least once..."

"At least once?" Inquired Harry, it didn't make sense to him, they said they weren't interested in having sex with each other.

"Well, there wouldn't be much point to the whole exercise if you weren't interested in having sex with both of us, so it might happen again." Answered Parvati. "So anyway, while we will both have sex with you together at some point, that's not going to be the normal state of affairs. Now as only one of us will be sleeping you normally that means the other will be somewhere else and we would rather be in bed with someone than sleep alone and after being with our sister another girl will be easy, so we want to be a part of a set of 5 wives for 6 people altogether, 3 pairs"

"Now we probably don't need to become your concubines, Harry, but better safe than sorry." Said Padma, picking up where Parvati left off. "But it does have some advantages, even for the magical world it can be done young; it doesn't attract big crowds, not that they would be welcome given some of the traditions surrounding the practice, because it's a business deal, although you can have a big non-magical wedding after. Now the final advantage of us becoming your concubines is more for us; ease in persuading other girls to join us. Remember how I mentioned 5 wives?" Padma asked and Harry nodded his head in response. "It should be easier for one of your concubines to convince a girl to become your concubine then for you wife to do the convincing, the whole thing sort of comes out differently. Plus the pool of available wives is bigger than the one for concubines, I can't see, say Hermione, accepting the concubine position."

"Now, Harry, here's the important thing: Do you think you could do this? Could you take us as your concubines? Love us and any other girls you marry for the rest of your life?" Asked Parvati.

"I don't know, girls, I've never had a family before, not a real one. And I don't know what love is, I've never known it my whole life, are you sure you want me to do this?" Responded Harry.

"Yes, Harry, we do. You saving Hermione and Ginny shows that you do care. As for not having a family or knowing love? We can teach you those things, it may even be better that way, the love we will hopefully share and the family we will have someday would be very different to what most boys would know. Your uncertainty proves that you are a good choice, you want to so this to help us, not because you're some teenage boy wanting to enjoy having a pair of twins as his girlfriends. Heading into this relationship with an open mind and being prepared to learn is better than deciding what it's going to be like before you start and mucking things up when it isn't like you thought it would be." Said Parvati.

"OK, Parvati, you make a very convincing argument, it's clear that the two of you want this and who am I to refuse a girl or girls in need. What do I have to do to make this work?" He asked, admitting defeat.

"Pretty simple really." Answered Padma. "At some point you will meet with our father in Gringotts and sign a contract detailing him selling us to you, when the contract is signed one of several specially charmed chokers will appear around our necks to show that we are your concubines, they're a bit like Wedding Rings. Normally you would negotiate with father for some time over things like how much you pay him and the terms of the Contract, like are we allowed lovers. The real question is when the signing should happen."

"Harry's next birthday." Came the reply from Parvati. "Daddy shouldn't die until after then and lots of girls will scream when they find out Harry bought us as birthday presents." This last caused both the girls to start smirking.

However it didn't do much for Harry. "Girls, I'm not liking the sound of some of this, the way you two are talking it sounds like if we go through with this you two will become things that I own." Said Harry.

"That's very close to the truth, Harry. The modern practice of keeping concubines is a based on an older practice were the girls and women were property and the magic can only be modified so far and still work. But, Harry, in the magical world it's normal for the bride's family to receive a sum money called the bride price when or before she gets married, so it's not like it's that different from getting married in the magical world." Answered Padma.

"Harry," said Parvati. "The difference between you marrying us magically and taking us as your concubines isn't that great, if we were to marry you magically we would swear Oaths, binding on us for the rest of our lives, to 'Love, honour and obey' you, which would come very close to us becoming your slaves and if things didn't work out between all of us personally we would be stuck with each-other for life. As your concubines we would be not-quite-property but if things don't work out you could sell us to Neville say. In some places it's illegal to marry magically as it viewed as a violation of human rights, and even if not illegal it is very rare."

"Alright, I'm convinced already, what do we do next?" Asked Harry who knew that he wouldn't be able talk them out of this and from what they were saying he really didn't like the other options.

"Well first you give both of us kisses, and it's getting close to lunch so we should all go down to the Great Hall and have lunch, but separately, then when we get back Padma starts writing up that contract while you write that letter to Gringotts and I do my homework, I haven't got anything to put in those dream journals for Trelawney. If you mean long term we start dating in secret and get to know each other." Answered Parvati.

"You mean haven't you picked up the trick to doing those Journals?" Asked Harry. "It's simple really, make stuff up, I've found that the nastier it is the better." Parvati just looked at him in shock.

Padma couldn't seem to resist the chance to show her sister how bad a teacher Trelawney was. "He's right you know, how often do you actually dream, the sort of dream's Trelawney is interested in and remember them?" Padma said with a smug look on her face.

"OK, you two win, but there's going to be a few dreams involving one or both of you. Harry, why don't you go on ahead to lunch, I want to have a few words with my sister." Said Parvati.

-/-/-/-/-

Approximately one hour later, same place

"OK, so who am I addressing this letter to and what should it contain?" Asked Harry once they had all gotten back to their private classroom.

"The who is Gangrene, Officer in Charge of Animal Processing, Gringotts Special Financial Services Department, as to what it should contain just that you have slain a Basilisk and wish to arrange for the processing of it's remains and wanted details on how Gringotts can help, be polite, formal and brisk, the goblins don't like it when people waste their time with pointless pleasantry." Was Padma's answer.

Fifteen minutes and many corrections later

"There, I think I'm done, come have a look girls." Harry called out.

Once the girls walked over he showed them the letter

_To: Gangrene, Officer in Charge of Animal Processing, Gringotts Special Financial Services Department_

_Noble Goblin, having only recently been informed of the existence of your office I am writing so as to inquire what it would cost for your office to arrange for the processing of a Basilisk I have slain in single combat. The Basilisk in question is believed to have been Salazar Slytherin's and as such is thought to be one thousand years old, physically the carcass measures approximately one hundred and twenty feet long and five feet across and apart from the damage inflicted upon it to slay the beast (a stab wound through the roof of the mouth and into the brain and ruptured eyes) it is in perfect condition despite being dead for approximately six months. In addition to the carcass ten skins shed by the beast over it's life have been found, the smallest of which is twenty feet long. _

_Awaiting your reply, Harry Potter_

"Very good work, Harry. Polite but not excessive, saying everything it needs to but not any more, just the way the Goblins like it. Fold it up and send it off later." Said Padma

"Why later? What's wrong with now?" Asked Harry.

"Because you have two girlfriends now, Harry, and you need to spend as mush time as possible with us." Answered Parvati. "Now, I want to hear about the rest of your adventures, after you told us of the Basilisk yesterday we sort of stopped and went down to dinner and now is the time to tell me the rest."

"OK, but there's no that much more to tell." Responded Harry before he picked up from where he left off yesterday when he was interrupted by Padma.

Sometime Later

"Damn it." Called out Harry. "I just remembered that I promised Hermione that I would help her prepare for Buckbeak's trial and I've forgotten all about it."

"Trial? What's Buckbeak being put on trial for, Harry?" Asked Parvati.

"Attacking Draco. Draco doesn't like Hagrid, so after Buckbeak took a swipe at him for being rude and not listening to Hagrid he got daddy to pay to have Buckbeak killed for being dangerous and has been milking that arm of his for months, between the way he was acting, and if Madam Pomfrey can regrow all the bones in my arm in a night, there's no way his arm was really hurt for that long." Answered Harry.

"That's horrible." Said Parvati. "Draco's so mean, Pad, we should do something."

"We will be, Parv, we will be. The problem with Hermione's decision try to research and try to effect the court case is that if Lucius has brought the outcome it's not going to do any good, so we'll have do something better. Harry, you're going to be writing another letter and when you're done you will take it straight down to the Owlery so that it gets to the Daily Prophet before tomorrow's edition is sent out, if Draco reacts the way I think he will to what appears in the Prophet and the way people respond things are going to get very interesting for him one day and it will all be his own fault." Responded Padma.

"While you're gone, Harry, have a few words with Madam Pomfrey as well, we might be able to cause problems for Malfoy when he comes back from holiday as well." She added.

"That's great." Said Harry, who then leaned over and hugged Padma.

* * *

Thanks to Tommy King for his beta'ing, meteoricshipyards, Jonas, Scott Smith and loretta_boshell for help with typos and wording and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of

Now, a couple of Reveiws that I think need replying to

Zurk: I figure that the oldest skin is 1,000 years old, I don't think the normal rules apply to these skins

Now someone also said that the story seemed jumpy, that's because it's still getting started and I'm only inserting extra scenes at the moment, as things progress that should get better


	5. Chapter 5: Letters

Disclaimer: If you don't know who owns Harry Potter I have to wonder what you're doing here.

AN: I am planing to change the name when I update next, current leading contender is Of Hope and Dreams, if you have any suggestion please PM me

* * *

"So what's this letter I have to write and what is it going to say?" Asked Harry after he finished hugging Padma. "And how is it going to ruin Malfoy's plan?"

"Malfoy's father got into a spot of trouble while He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was still around and he doesn't want people remembering it, but we're going to remind people of it in your letter, bringing it up should hammer, if not destroy, his ability to influence the outcome of Buckbeak's trial. Draco might be able to do something, if he thinks to. As for the letter itself, I don't really know what exactly it will contain, this isn't really a letter, it's more of something that we want published and I don't know how to write stuff like that, something to research over the summer then. Now the actual content is pretty simple, with the breakout of Sirius Black you are worried that one of those people who where _Imperiused _by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named may be put back under the _Imperius Curse_ by Black now that he is out of Azkaban." Said Padma

"_Imperiused_, _Imperius Curse_, what does that mean?" Asked Harry.

"The _Imperius Curse_ is a Curse that allows somebody to take control of somebody else, somebody operating under the effects of the curse is said to be _Imperiused_, so the letter will mention that you've just learned about the _Imperius Curse_. It's going to take many drafts to get this right. Thankfully, like all Hogwarts classrooms, there's some sort of magical version of a blackboard and chalk in here. Par, you can act as Harry's secretary and write everything down." Said Padma.

"Does that mean Harry's going to chase me around the room?" Asked Parvati.

"If you want me to I can do that Parvati, I don't know why you'd want me too but, I'd catch you pretty quick in here." Said Harry, not getting the subtext.

"Maybe later." Was her sister's response. "Start writing. For headings we will start with _My Concerns_ then divide the board into three parts across its length." Seeing that her sister had done that she continued her instructions. "Now on the left put down these points, introduction, learned about _Imperius Curse_, concerned people may be put back under its sway, particularly Lucius Malfoy, wonder what the Ministry is doing to protect these people and finally conclusion. Now, all we need to do is fill in these points that form the basis of the letter."

Approximately One Hour Later

"There, done." Said Parvati. "I've copied the letter down, now it's time for Harry to chase me around the room." She finished before jumping up and dancing around the tables and chairs, calling out "Catch me, Harry."

Seeing that he had no choice but to follow along Harry got up and started moving between the tables and chairs to follow her, given the size of the room and all the obstacles. Having caught the playfull Gryffindor witch he realized that he didn't know what to do, so asked her sister. "Alright, I've caught Parvati, what do I do now?"

"Tickle her, and see if tickling her in any particular area causes her to make funny noises." Said Padma, knowing that giving Harry instructions closer to what her sister wanted wouldn't end well.

"OK, but what do you mean by 'funny noises'?" Responded Harry.

"Oh, you'll know when you hear them, Harry." Answered Padma, and with this Harry started tickling her sister.

About a minute later Padma saw that the only reason her sister was still upright was because Harry still had his arms wrapped around her whilst tickling her, and she decided that she should stop things now, otherwise her sister's payback would be really nasty. "Harry," Said Padma, "I don't think you're getting anywhere, why don't you go post those letters, after you duplicate them."

"OK, Padma." Replied Harry, grabbing the letter to Gringotts from where he had left it, placing it on top of the letter to the _Daily Prophet_, grabbing two sheets of blank parchment he put them down next to the letters. Getting out his wand, saying "_Duplicatus_" he tapped it against the letters, dipped it in the inkwell Parvati had been using, and then tapped the blank pieces of parchment. Picking the originals up again, Harry separated them, folded them up, put them in separate envelopes, addressed the envelopes and sealed them before walking out to door to post them.

Just as Harry was leaving Padma called out. "Harry, don't forget to talk to Madam Pomfrey about Malfoy's injuries while you're gone."

"Thanks for reminding me, Padma." Said Harry in response.

Once Harry had left, Padma turned to her sister and said: "What where you thinking? Harry's not ready for stuff like that."

"You called me his secretary, that's what men do with their secretaries. Besides, we agreed to continuously remind him that we are pretty girls and I was doing just that." Her sister replied.

"It hasn't been acceptable do do those sort of things with a secretary for at least twenty years for a start. And secondly Harry's not ready for pretty girls to be more than something you look upon and admire, like a painting, just us sitting in his lap is enough for now. Besides which, we need to get to _know_ Harry as a person, and he needs to get to know us, fun and games are all right, but don't go scaring him off." Responded Padma.

Five Minutes Later, Hogwarts Hospital Wing

"Madam Pomfrey, are you in?" Called out Harry upon entering the Medi-Witch's domain.

"Yes, Mr. Potter, I'm here. Now what seems to be the problem? Nothing seems to be wrong with you and you aren't the sort of student who I expect to me visit socially. With the trouble you seem to get into I could see you wishing to learn healing however." Answered the lady in question.

"Truth be told, Madam Pomfrey, I think having someone who is always around me knowing how to heal people would be better, seeing how badly I am often hurt. And you are right this is not a social call, I wanted to know why it took so long for Draco Malfoy's arm to heal after he was attacked. I mean, when all the bones in my arm were vanished last year you were able to regrow them overnight." Asked Harry.

"I suspect you are right, Mr. Potter, you rarely come to me in a state were any one would be capable of healing themselves. As for Mr. Malfoy, healing his arm took hardly any-time at all." Replied the Nurse.

"Then why has Malfoy had his arm in a sling for the past two months? He's been using it to get out of classwork" Responded Harry.

"Healing an injury such as Mr. Malfoy's is different to regrowing bones, even after the procedure is complete the area is still damaged and for that reason I advised him to keep his arm in a sling when not using for a week. I will investigate your complaints, Mr. Potter, and if Mr. Malfoy has been abusing the instructions that I gave him I will talk to the Headmaster and have him take remedial action. At the very least threatening to keep Mr. Malfoy in here until he has completely recovered in the future, no matter how minor the injury, should have an effect." Madam Pomfrey WAS a School Nurse after all, a chance to teach one of the children in her care was something she wouldn't pass up.

"Could you talk to Madam Hooch as well? He used the sling and implied injures so that Slytherin could avoid playing in bad weather." Harry suggested.

"Yes, Mr. Potter, I shall. While the situation with Gryffindor having to play without you is different it certainly warrants investigation."

-/-/-/-/-

When she received her subscription copy of the _Daily Prophet_ during breakfast Hermione was surprised to see a letter from Harry to the paper and an article written in response getting front page billing. Harry hadn't told her about this, which meant that Parvati might be correct when she said that Harry won't like her making decisions that effect him without talking to him about it, and that next time something like that comes up she should talk to him first. But looking at the article she knew that she wouldn't be making things up with Harry today because the things that he mentioned in the letter meant that she would be spending all day in the library checking them out.

_MY CONCERNS _

_By Harry Potter _

_Dear Daily Prophet, since I have re-entered the Wizarding World on many occasions I have found myself discovering something that everyone else knows. Once again I find myself in this situation, although at least this time there is the explanation that I might not want to hear about the events surrounding my parents deaths, and the end of the war. _

_I have recently found out about the _Imperius Curse_, and how He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named [Editor's Note: here Mr. Potter used the You-Know-Who's actual name we at the Daily Prophet have removed so as to not terrify our readers] placed people under it to force them to do his bidding. _

_With Sirius Black's breakout from Azkaban, I am concerned people may be put back under its sway, particularly tempting is Lucius Malfoy, close friend of the Minister of Magic and the father of a boy in my year. Said son has gone home for the holidays, providing Black with a perfect opportunity to arrange for both the minister and myself to die. _

_And while I am safely at Hogwarts with all the protection that entails in addition to my facing He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and defeated him, others such as Mr. Malfoy mentioned above have no such protections and with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named having placed Mr. Malfoy under the _Imperius Curse_ in the past, I can only hope that the Ministry has taken steps to protect him from being placed under it again. _

_Upon receiving Mr. Potter's letter we at the Daily Prophet immediately contacted Director Bones, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to ask her if she has taken any action to protect those placed under the _Imperius Curse_ during the last war, her response was simple yet rather chilling: _

_"In the past, on multiple occasions, the most recent of which followed Black's escape from Azkaban, I have approached the Minister about putting those who were _Imperiused_ under watch in case He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named gave them instructions that would enable His return that they would be forced to carry out. On all occasions my request has been denied, I can only hope that Mr. Potter's letter prompts the Minister to allow me take measures to protect these people." _

-/-/-/-/-

When Harry came down to breakfast after Hermione had left, he found a copy of the Daily Prophet waiting for him, the note attached to it said 'compliments of the editor', just as he sat down to eat, Hedwig returned with a letter from Gringotts. Untying the letter from Hedwig's leg he put it aside until he could discuss it with Padma later before giving Hedwig some bacon for her troubles.

When he meet up with Padma and Parvati later he brought up the letter immediately, knowing that it could very well be important

_Dear Mr. Potter _

_I am pleased to inform you what Gringotts Wizarding Bank has facilities in-house to process the basilisk you describe, providing greater profits to all involved. In answer to your question regarding fees for Gringotts Wizarding Bank's assistance in this matter, our usual price structure for processing such a beast is 10 Galleons per ton, fees for brokering run at three percent (3%). _

_As for selling the beast, Basilisk meat is a delicacy among Goblins and Gringotts normally buys all of it, at a very generous price, as there is no other market, the proceeds from such a sale normally cover all costs. As for the rest of the beast, I would like to talk to you in person when it is convenient, it had been a long time since Gringotts has dealt in such goods and we would wish to discuss their sale with you beforehand. _

_Given your isolated upbringing we advise that you bring a person or persons you trust with you to explain things you may not understand. _

_Yours, Gangrene, Officer in Charge of Animal Processing, Gringotts Special Financial Services Department _

"What do you think?" He asked, handing the letter to Padma.

"It's rather interesting. I suppose he's right when says that no one else would buy the meat, I've never even heard of anyone eating it. And everybody knows that Basilisk parts are valuable, but I don't think I've ever heard why, or what they're used for, so selling them might be a problem. Write back to him saying that with the escape of Sirius Black, that Hogwarts Staff have placed limits on your ability to move about and if he can arrange secure transport for yourself and one other, given the timing the next Hogsmeade visit would be best, preferably after midday. Now any questions?" Responded Padma.

"Just who's going with me to see the goblin." Asked Harry.

"I am, Parvati's going to Hogsmeade like a normal student, but she's going to forgot to wear her trimmed robes or house tie so that people will think that it could be me instead." Answered Padma

-/-/-/-/-

Hermione found the front page of the Daily Prophet the next morning was far less surprising, but no less interesting.

_FORMER _IMPERIUSED _DEATH EATERS IMPRISONED _

_The Daily Prophet is pleased to report that in response to yesterday's article that with the exception of Walden McNair, who it is believed caught wind of the plans through his contacts in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, all those placed under the _Imperius Curse_ and forced to do He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's bidding during the last war have been placed in protective custody in Azkaban until a more appropriate holding location can be found. In addition to being placed in protective custody these individuals have been declared non-compos mentis and control of their estates has been passed to their heirs. _

_It is unknown at this time if Walden McNair fled because of lingering effects of his exposure to the _Imperius Curse_ or for other reasons. _

If she read things right Draco's father was now basically in prison and control of the family fortune had passed to Draco because his father had been placed under a mind control spell and Harry had written a letter to the Prophet about it. When Draco got back from holiday she knew this was going to be trouble, so she needed to talk to Harry about this, after she apologised about the broom, this was going to hurt, she knew, but not as much as being on the outs with Harry.

And just to make things worse Harry choose that moment to come down for breakfast.

"Harry." She called out.

"Sure, Hermione." He responded walking over. "What's the matter?"

"I, uh, wanted to apologize for, uh, about the broomstick. I, um, only did it to protect you." She stammered out. "And, um, ask you about this thing with Draco's father." She was so nervous she couldn't think straight.

"It's alright, Hermione. I knew you only told about the Firebolt because you were concerned about me. Everything's better now, I just needed some time away from you and Ron while you two were fighting. As for the thing with Draco's father, I was talking with someone and Buckbeak's trial came up, they said that if Draco's father is suffering under a cloud from his past he won't be able to influence the outcome of the trial. Draco _might_ be able to influence the outcome, but that would require him to actually think that things won't go his way." He said before hugging her, something he'd never done before.

When she found out who was responsible for all of this she would have to thank them, but she wouldn't ask Harry about that now, it might upset Harry and she didn't want to do that. Besides it was good that Harry was making friends with new people, just having Ron and her for friends couldn't be good for him. Of course she wasn't any better off, so maybe she should try and make some more friends, Parvati might be able to teach her how to look nicer and she wanted to stay close to Harry.

-/-/-/-/-

First Day of term, The Great Hall, Breakfast

When Hermione came down to breakfast on the first day of the new term, she was surprised to see that the Headmaster was absent, in addition he had been absent last night. In fact now that Hermione thought about it, she didn't think she'd seen him since Harry's letter had appeared in the Prophet. Once everyone was in the Great Hall Professor McGonagall stood up and started speaking.

"Students, I have some important announcements to make." She begun. "With those individuals who were put under the _Imperius Curse_ during the last war placed in protective custody, the Headmaster has been called to his duties as head of the Wizengamot to devise a way where they might be rendered immune to the curse and allowed to re-enter society, during his absence as Deputy Headmistress I will be performing his duties.

"Furthermore," She continued. "It has come to light that Draco Malfoy has been exaggerating his injuries. As punishment he is docked 150 house points a given a month's detention. Because other students were unfairly forced to assist Mr. Malfoy with his work, impacting their own, during this period, as such Mr. Malfoy's marks during the period will be reduced by one grade. Finally I believe Madam Hooch has something she wishes to say."

"Thank you, Professor McGonagall." Said Hooch. "Because of Mr. Malfoy's deception, the Slytherin House's match against Gryffindor was moved, thus as a penalty Slytherin's score in its next match will be halved."

Sitting next to her she could her faint sounds of amusement from Harry while across the room she could see that Malfoy was seething, clearly he wanted to say something, probably his classic 'When my father hears about this' but obviously it wouldn't help him at this time

Finishing her breakfast, and noting that the Prophet didn't have anything interesting in it today, Hermione got up to make her way to her first class of the day: Arithmancy. When she got there she was so surprised to see Harry there waiting there that she almost didn't say anything.

"Harry," She said. "What are you doing here?"

"It's pretty simple, Hermione, I've changed classes. Over the break I did all the coursework Professor Vector has assigned, when I gave it to her she was quite happy to let me transfer in." Harry answered.

"That's great, Harry, I always knew you could do better in your classes and could handle the harder classes and I'm happy to see you attempting them. I'm guessing that the friend you mentioned earlier helped you?" Hermione asked.

"Yes they did. Unfortunately I had to give up Hagrid's Care of Magical Creature class to make the change but I hope to pick the class up again next year. If you could take notes for me? I'll make my apologies to Hagrid later." He replied.

"I'd be glad to do that, Harry." After falling silent for a moment she continued talking. "Ron's going to pitch a fit over this, isn't he?"

"If he does it's his problem, Hermione, not ours. When I transferred in I found out that my parents both took this class, something I didn't know before. Taking this class allows me to be a little bit closer to them and I'm not going to give that up just because Ron thinks that the class is too hard." He responded.

"That's nice to hear, Harry, I hope you get something out of doing this class." Hermione said. Just then Professor Vector arrived, ending the conversation.

Once they had all filed into the classroom, Professor Vector announced to the class that "Over the holidays Mr. Potter has completed all the work I have given out to date and has achieved an overall grade of Exceeds Expectations and so I have allowed him to transfer in." This caused several people to look at Harry, but no one said anything.

Hermione noticed the fact that Harry was now doing better then her in this class, and knew she would have to do something about her grades or it would get back to Ron and he would start mocking her. Not that it would really matter all that much seeing as they weren't talking to each other at the moment, and he would probably use it as an excuse to slack off on his own work even more. This latest thought caused her to realize that Harry had been getting on top of his classwork, which for some reason had caused Ron to fall even further behind.

When the class was over Hermione was surprised when Professor Vector called Harry to the front, saying "Mr. Potter, I have that list of books I mentioned last time."

At lunch time they were sitting with Ron again, it seemed he had calmed down over the matter of the Firebolt, that or '_He's in trouble for not doing his holiday assignments and wants me to help him._' Hermione thought. While Ron was busy stuffing his face, as-per-usual, Harry asked her a question. "Hermione, I'm surprised that you haven't asked about that list of books Professor Vector gave me at the end of class or my new friend, it's been almost a week since I told you that one."

"After the I saw the first article in the Prophet I promised myself I wouldn't pry too much into what you were doing, I don't want to lose your friendship Harry." She answered.

"Well, the list is pretty simple, it's of books recommended by the previous Potions Master." Harry said. "As for who my new friend is, well you're the smartest witch of her generation, I think I'll let you try and figure it out." And with that he carried on eating.

* * *

Thanks to Tommy King for his beta'ing, meteoricshipyards and Scott Smith for help with typos and wording and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of


	6. Chapter 6: Draco Suffers

OK, as promised the name has been changed. Now, the chapter I have been working on forb the past month has blown out, so I've decided to split it in two, that means that in a couple of months I'll be posting the the first part of it, which comes to little more then half of what a I normally put out, althrough that might go up

* * *

That Night, Gryffindor Common Room

It wasn't until Harry was leaving the Gryffindor Common Room after dinner that Ron asked Harry about him not being in Care of Magical Creature that morning.

"Harry, wait up." Ron called out just as Harry was about to step out to portrait hole.

"What is it Ron?" Replied Harry.

"I was just, um, wondering were you were during class today?" Asked Ron.

"What do you mean, were was I during class?" Asked Harry in return.

"During Care of Magical Creature, that's when. I didn't see at all during class, then whenever I see you for the rest of the day you act like nothings happened. If you've found a way to skip classes without getting in trouble you've got to tell me. No more Snape." Ranted Ron.

"Sorry to disappoint you Ron, but I don't have a way to skip classes without getting in trouble. I've transferred into Arithmancy and out of Care as a result." Said Harry, finally answering Ron's original question.

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" Said a flabbergasted Ron.

"Well, Ron, ever since you blow your top at Hermione about her telling McGonagall about my Firebolt we haven't been talking as much. As for why I changed, given the amount of trouble I get into knowing how and why spells work the way they do could come in handy, plus my parents both took it. And before you bring up all the monsters I've had to fight, none of them are likely to come up during class." Responded Harry.

"What you taking her side again Harry?" Ron said rather loudly, sounding rather upset.

Harry returned fire. "NO, Ronald, I am not. Hermione had nothing to do with my changing classes, in fact she didn't even know about it until we meet up outside the classroom this morning. Now, unless you have something important to talk about I'm going to get my homework done."

"Getting your homework done? Why would you want to do something boring like that?" Ron was almost screaming at this point.

"Because Ron, in about a week Quidditch practice will start up again and knowing Oliver he will have the team out on the pitch as often as he can and when that starts I'd rather not get behind in any of my homework because I won't have time to do it in, plus if I get too far behind in my homework I'll be pulled off the team, and you wouldn't want that now would you Ron?" Harry felt no need to match Ron for volume but his voice was louder then normal.

"WHAT?" This time Ron did scream. "They can't do that."

"Yes they can Ron, we're here to learn, not play Quidditch. Now, I know you're looking at trying out for Keeper when Oliver leaves next year, right?" Asked Harry, knowing that making this point clear should cause Ron to be quite on the subject.

"You know I do Harry." Answered Ron, having returned to a more normal voice.

"Well if you don't have a record of doing work why should the team let you on? If you're not going to be making it to practice because you're doing detention for not having homework down, why should they pick you?" Explained Harry, hoping that at the very least it would cause Ron to not make a fuss about him getting his completed early in the future and avoid Hermione's nagging.

-/-/-/-/-

That Sunday, Breakfast Time/Before the Slytherin/Ravenclaw Quidditch Match, The Great Hall

When the morning post arrived and everybody looked up to see if there was anything for them it was impossible to miss the swarm of Post Owls headed towards Malfoy. Between them those owls carried seven long, thin oddly shaped packages that could only be brooms. Once Draco had finished opening them and passing out the Nimbus 2002 broom around to his fellow members of the Slytherin Quidditch Team Harry and Ron started grumbling. Ron was making the usual noises about him being dark and evil, but Harry was saying something about getting out of his punishment.

Hermione couldn't resist taking the bait offered up by Harry's statement. "What do you mean Harry, getting out of his punishment?" She asked.

"Well Hermione, with those new brooms Hooch's punishment is going to be rendered null and void?." He answered.

"You mean because they will be scoring so high, right." She replied.

"No." He corrected her. "They'll be scoring low. The Nimbus serries are all racing brooms, they sacrifice control and stability for speed and it gets worse each year. Seekers get a lot out of them, as can Chasers at times when speed matters, but other wise they're a bad broom for Quidditch. The Nimbus Company is also owned by the Cleansweep Company, so it's a bit like, say Vauxhall, trying to produce a sports car, it's not their field of expertise and they're not going to devote or have the resources to really make it work. My Firebolt on the other hand is made by a company similar to Aston Martin, they specialise in high-performance brooms and produce high quality product as a result. So they'll be playing on brooms that are for the most part inappropriate for their positions on the field that they have never flown before, it's a bad place to be in.

-/-/-/-/-

Dinner Time The Great Hall

_Harry has greatly overestimated Slytherin's chances_, Hermione thought once the match was over and they were all inside for dinner. The match had lasted all day, literally. It had gone on for all of eight hours, a record new length for a Hogwarts game, and while the sun had been just pecking above the surrounding mountains when the game started it had well and truly been down when they trudged back inside after Cho Chang had caught the snitch for Ravenclaw, it hadn't really mattered for Slytherin hadn't scored a single point all game.

Once they had all finished eating Madam Hooch stood up at the Head table like she had at the start of term and motioned for everyone to be quiet. When the noise level had died down enough that she could be heard by everyone she started speaking.

"In light of Slytherin Quidditch Team's horrible performance today and their attempt to mitigate their punishment for tricking the teachers into changing the match schedule, the outcome of this game will stand as-is and instead their points total from their highest scoring match of the year will be halved." She said.

The response around the Great Hall was varied, several members of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw houses looked like they were about to burst into cheers while the rest of those house where looking very happy with this outcome. The Slytherins did not look at all pleased with the situation, their Quidditch Team or Draco in particular. Snape looked like he wanted to do something nasty in return but know it would only get his house in deeper trouble, he had annoyed the other teachers too much over the past years and with out the Headmaster here to support him things wouldn't go well.

Harry was very happy with the way things had turned out, but not for quite the same reason as everyone else. With the way things had happened Snape couldn't cause trouble for him in class for the next few weeks with out the other teachers hammering him for retaliating against Harry for something Harry had no part in. Between that and Professor Vector's list of books Harry's potion grade should be going up, which could land Snape in even more trouble if the teachers caught on in time.

-/-/-/-/-

Sunday, Breakfast Time, The Great Hall

The following morning when Harry was eating his breakfast before most of the castle was up a thoroughly unremarkable Post Owl delivered the plainest letter Harry had ever seen, not even the Dursley's had stationary this bland, however the moment Harry got a look at the back of the letter he could just make out an embossed Gringotts logo that would be all too easy to miss if he wasn't physically holding the letter in his hand. Putting the letter in his bag to read later, he offered the owl some bacon, which it didn't take before flying off. Finishing off his breakfast, Harry set off at a leisurely stroll for the room where he normally meet up with Padma and Parvati.

When he reached the room neither of the girls where there yet, not that he expected them to be. Parvati wasn't an early riser when there weren't classes and Padma didn't like getting here before her sister. Deciding to use the time to get started on his assignments, he didn't want to read the letter yet, it looked very different to the last one he had received and he wanted to know if it was safe to open first.

When the twins did arrive, separately, about an hour later, he waited until they had all finished greeting each other, which for Padma and Parvati seemed to be livelier, but before they settled into do work before raising the matter of the letter he had received. Padma replied, told him that, "Gringotts sends out letters like that when they know the person on the receiving end doesn't want other people to know that they are getting mail from Gringotts. It's probably a reply to your request for a meeting and they sent it to you like that because you mentioned that you weren't being allowed to move around. If I sit in your lap we can read it together." And with that she took of her robe.

Thankfully this time she war wearing her jumper, but Padma hadn't gotten her jumper cut to allow growth so it was rather form fitting. Once Padma was sitting in his lap he pulled both of them and the chair into the table, reached into his bag to retrieve the letter and then open the letter. Placing the letter down on the table in front of them, they begun to read.

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_My apologies for the lateness of this reply but I wished to consulate with your family lawyer first and arrange, if possible, for him to be present at our meeting. It was only when I showed him your letter requesting a meeting and he saw your statement about your movements being restricted, apparently he has sent several letters to you that were confidential and he is surprised that you haven't replied to them, he now believes that his letters to you have been intercepted and is prepared to meet with you outside of his normal hours._

_As far as transport is concerned, for some reason the wards of Hogwarts do not block Portkeys like they do Apparition so this letter also contains a length of knotted thread that can pass as a bracelet, it is a return Portkey. I have made arrangements for both myself and your family lawyer to be available to meet with you from 1 PM on the date of the next Hogsmeade weekend. Once this time has passed you and whoever you wish to bring with you should retire to a secure location, once there have your companion grab your hand while you grab the bracelet with one of your hands and say the word 'coming', you will be transported to a special arrival room here in Gringotts, a return function of the Portkey will be enabled once we are finished, allowing you to return from where you left, so make sure that the location will be secure for the entire time._

_Yours, Gangrene._

"Well that's interesting, I didn't know that Portkeys went through Hogwarts' wards like that but it makes travelling easier. Now that bit about the family lawyer is both useful and interesting. Now that I think about it it's not surprising that your family both has a lawyer and that he would want to speak with you, I mean at this time you are the sole member of the Potter Family and as such you should know what is going on with the family trust. This means that we won't need to hire a lawyer to help with selling the Basilisk or with any other activities that require a lawyer." She said, winking at the last bit, obliviously hinting at her and her sister becoming his concubines.

"Family trust, I'm guessing that I'm missing something again?" Asked Harry.

"Yes, I'd say you are Harry." Answered Padma. "The whole thing is really complicated and I haven't look at it in detail but a trust is a body of wealth, weather actual coins in a bank or property that can make money that was set aside to provide for a family such as the Potters is the past to support them so when people talk about families such as the Potters owning something their normally actually talking about the family trust owning it. The lawyer probably just wants to give you a report on how much money it has been making."

"What's the difference between that and my trust vault?" Said Harry, thinking that he was still missing something.

"Legally from what I understand, not much, but your trust vault will only contain money and is mostly there to pay for your school expenses with a little bit of spending money, to provide you with some independence from your parents, if they where still alive." Supplied Padma, seeing that Harry was starting to tear up with this piece of information she continued. "I'm sorry Harry, but I think you needed to know. Parv, come here and help me cheer Harry up." Before moving over so that there was room for both of them on Harry's lap.

Hearing her sisters word's and seeing how upset Harry was over the mention of his dead parents, Parvati decided that work on her dream journals, which she had chosen because she was likely to be interrupted or distracted, could wait. Taking of her robe before settling in next to her sister she wondered if Harry had ever really dealt with the death of his parents. He seemed to get a bit upset on Halloween, but something bad always seemed to happen to him on Halloween. And it seemed more like he sad over never knowing them then actually hurt.

Once Harry was feeling better, and having two very attractive girls sitting in his lap meant that he felt better rather quick, he then asked Padma "What do I put in my reply to Gangrene?"

"Nothing is particular, just thank him for being prepared to meet with you outside of normal hours and ask him to thank your family lawyer as well." Padma answered.

"Padma," Asked Harry, "Do you know how Hermione's making it to all her classes? I mean she's taking both Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy and I had to drop Care to take Arithmancy and as far as I know she's never missed a class for either."

"Oh that's easy Harry, several of us in Ravenclaw spotted it right off the bat. She's been given something that allows her to be in two places at once, most likely is a Time Turner, something that allows you to travel backwards in time by a small amount, so she goes to Care with Ron, then travels backwards in time and then comes to Arithmancy with us. The thing that's been really bothering those of us in Ravenclaw who like Hermione is why she would have been given one, messing with time is dangerous, so the best we can come up with is that someone's trying to do Hermione a bad turn."

"And why would she want to do that? And how do we protect her?" Asked Harry, worried about Hermione.

"The why is pretty simple Harry." Answered Parvati this time. "She's the sort of person who isn't going to let injustice stand sooner or later she will cause trouble for the Pureblood Elite that run the Ministry so their just trying to deal with the problem before it becomes a problem. Protecting her is harder, we'll have to some how knock the idea out of her head that taking all classes at once is a good idea to deal with the immediate problem, then we have to get her to keep her head down until she's in a position to do some actual good. There's nothing much you can do for her at the moment Harry, just keep an eye on her and try and keep her out of trouble, and talk her out of taking all twelve classes at once, if possible. We'll think of something later, hopefully."

"One last thing, Padma, Parvati, what's a Portkey?" Asked Harry

"That, Harry, has to be the simplist question you've asked all day." Responded Padma. "A Portkey is a charmed object that takes anyone holding it when it activates to a preset location. A Portkey may activate for one of three reason: someone touches it, a spefic time has been reached or an activation word is said. This one seems to require all three."

And with that they separated and got to work on their homework.

-/-/-/-/-

Once classes resumed Harry found himself tired quite often. Quidditch practice was only twice a week as Madam Hooch wouldn't let Oliver book the pitch more frequently, but Oliver tended to book the pitch two days in a row, often leaving Harry to stay up late to complete work that they weren't given much time to complete. Lupin's Anti-Dementor classes were also rather tiring and on a random schedule, although Harry found he got the best results if he thought of Padma and Parvati, or even Hermione; and he didn't know why.

On the day Harry asked Lupin about what was under a Dementor's hood and got his Firebolt back from Professor McGonagall. He had just sat down next to Hermione to work on his Arithmancy homework while she seemed to be working on six things at once when Ron came down the stairs and started started yelling about Crookshanks eating Scabbers. Personally Harry wasn't really interested, while Scabbers might have been important to Ron he didn't really mean anything to Harry. Plus Ron was being rather hypocritical of Hermione by blaming her for not doing anything to stop Crookshanks when Ron hadn't done anything to protect Scabbers. It wasn't like you could keep a cat in a cage, unlike a rat.

This meant that Harry was on rocky ground with Ron for not backing him up about Crookshanks eating Scabbers. Things didn't get better between the two of them until Harry let Ron take the Firebolt up during his next Quidditch practice and then things went back to normal between them but Ron wasn't really talking to Hermione.

-/-/-/-/-

After the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw Quidditch Match

"An unworthy trick!" Screamed Professor McGonagall. "A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker."

"Agreed Professor." Called out Madam Hooch. "As catching the Golden Snitch is worth one hundred and fifty points I think that point deductions can start with that much, each. And seeing as how Mr. Potter has spent most of the last month practising for this match I think your detentions can start at that long. Finally Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Flint, you are banned from Quiditch for the remainder of the year - and the team will not be allowed to seek replacement members, either!"

Thanks to Tommy King for his beta'ing, red jacobson, Corin Wolfkin, Scott Smith and fribergken for typo busting and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of


	7. Chapter 7: The Lead Up To Gringotts

Disclaimer: If you don't know who owns Harry Potter I have to wonder what you're doing here

Author's Note: As this story hasn't fully separated from canon yet portions of this chapter contain modified text from chapter's 13 and 14 of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

* * *

That Night, Gryffindor Common Room

Walking over to the table Hermione was studying at, Harry asked her "Did you even come to the match?"

"Of course I did," said Hermione, in a strangely high-pitched voice, not looking up. "And I'm very glad we won, and I think you did really well, but I need to read this by Monday."

"Hermione, that's not like you. You're normally so good about getting your homework done well ahead of time, what's different this time?" He asked.

"I just forgot, that's all." Was her response in an even higher pitch.

"And how long have you had to read this book?" Inquired Harry.

"Since before Christmas." She was starting to sound hysterical at this point while also trying to hide from Harry behind the book.

"And why haven't you read it before now?" Harry pressed.

"I haven't had the time before now." Now actually sounding hysterical.

Harry wondered if he should bring up the matter of how she was getting to all of her classes, but decided it wasn't worth it. Hermione was too strung up at the moment and from what Padma had said she probably wasn't supposed to talk about how she was managing it, so Harry decided to try something different.

"How about this**,** Hermione, you want me to get better marks, right?" Asked Harry.

"Of course I do**,** Harry, whatever made you think otherwise?" Answered Hermione, now calmer which pleased Harry, his track seemed to be working.

"Never did, just wanted to make sure. Now how about a deal, if you don't manage to close the gap between our Arithmancy grades once the next assignment is graded, you'll give serious thought to dropping one subject of your choice, alright?" Offered Harry.

"And what do I get if I manage to close the gap? Will you stop bugging me to not work as hard?" Hermione replied, calming down even more and coming out from hiding behind her book.

"No, because that I did that I would stop caring about you, and if that happened you wouldn't be my friend anymore, as being your friend means too much to me to just throw it away over you working yourself too hard." Harry countered.

"You're my friend**,** Harry? Do you really mean it?" Asked Hermione calmer than before.

"Of course I am, Hermione, why would I say it I was if I wasn't?" Answered Harry.

"It's just that I've never had friends before, and, well it's nice to hear you say that." Responded Hermione, finally returning to her normal voice.

"I'm not the only one concerned about how hard you're working yourself Hermione, you have more friends than you think you do, you're just too wound up to notice it." Said Harry.

These words seemed to have made Hermione's day. "Thanks, Harry, for letting me know. I'll try and relax more and not cause everyone to worry so much. And I agree to your deal." She replied.

"Good, and no slacking off in other subjects to pull up your Arithmancy grade." Harry responded.

"Harry, what makes you think that I would do something like that?" She retaliated.

"Nothing, just wanted to be sure you wouldn't try and find some way to worm your way out of thinking about dropping a subject." Said Harry. _And very happy that you accepted the deal without making me agree to something in return_ he thought to himself. Seeing that Hermione had calmed down a lot he decided to try something else to make her relax more. "Why don't you come to the party?"

She glanced over at Ron. "_He_ doesn't want me to."

Harry wasn't going to argue with this as at that exact moment Ron called out "If Scabbers hadn't just been _eaten_, he could have had some of these Fudge Flies, he used to really like them –"

And Hermione burst into tears. Before Harry could cheer her up _again_ she had tucked her book under her arm and was up running up the stairs to the girls dormitories and out of sight.

"Can't you give her a break?" Harry asked Ron quietly.

"No," Said Ron flatly. "If she acted like she was sorry – but she'll never admit she's wrong, not Hermione. She's still acting like Scabbers has gone on holiday or something."

"Ron." Said Harry angrily, "We've been over this before, you can't blame Hermione for not doing anything when you didn't do anything yourself. And you should have been thankful that you got a pet, Ginny, Fred and George don't have any and most of our classmates don't either. And if it gets back to your parents that you were whining like this after your own carelessness lost Scabbers, I doubt they're going to let you have another one. So, Ron, if I were you I'd think carefully about what you say." This last said loudly enough so that most of the room, including his siblings could hear, a subtle threat to Ron to improve his behavior.

That night Sirius Black somehow managed to get into the 3rd Year Gryffindor Boy's Dormitory and attack Ron. The following morning Harry noticed that the statue of the one-eyed witch on the third floor had been boarded up, meaning that someone other than Fred and George and now Ron, Hermione and Harry knew about it. Ron's brush with death had made him an instant celebrity and people were paying him more attention than Harry, which they were both thankful for, if for different reasons. So while Ron soothed his ego Harry tried to keep Hermione calm.

-/-/-/-/-

Hagrid's Hut, Two Days Later, Approximately Six PM

The first thing they saw on entering Hagrid's cabin was Buckbeak, who was stretched on top of Hagrid's patchwork quilt, his enormous wings folded tight to his body, enjoying a large plate of dead ferrets. Averting his eyes from this unpleasant sight, Harry saw a gigantic, hairy brown suit and a very horrible yellow and orange tie hanging from the top of Hagrid's wardrobe door.

"What are they for, Hagrid?" Said Harry.

"Buckbeak's case against the Committee for Disposal o' Dangerous Creatures," Said Hagrid. "This Friday. Him an' me'll be goin' down ter London together. I've booked two beds on the Knight Bus..."

"Don't worry, Hagrid, everything will be all right." Said Harry. "With Malfoy's father in legal limbo he won't be able to influence the outcome, you'll be fine. You might want to take Madam Pomfrey with you though, so she can tell them about how Malfoy lied about his injuries, I don't think she's at all happy about that."

"That's one o' the things I wanna discuss with you two," said Hagrid. "What were you thinkin', makin' an enemy of someone like Lucius Malfoy? He's dangerous he is."

"He's already my enemy Hagrid, he was behind the incident last year last year when students were being attacked. Plus with the way his son mouths off in support of the Pureblood agenda if he was _Imperiused_ he wasn't fighting it very hard. By doing this I'm able to stop him from having an innocent killed just to make his son feel better about being an idiot and ignoring a teacher's instructions when dealing with a dangerous animal." Answered Harry

"It's still dangerous but, he's gonna attack you for sendin' him to Azkaban like this." Was Hagrid's response.

"He won't be in any position to do anything to me until he gets out of Azkaban or wherever the Ministry ends up stashing him until they're convinced he won't simply be _Imperiused _into helping Lord Voldemot again, which won't be for a year or more. And if he's smart, which given that he allowed himself be imprisoned over this whole _Imperiused_ victim affair he is, he knows that getting caught attacking me will get him into even more trouble. In fact he'll probably publicly thank me for allowing the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for protecting him from being _Imperiused_ again, which will really annoy him and piss off Draco. Plus I doubt if he will have the ability to get back at me, have you seen the way Draco is spending his father's money?" Said Harry

"Alright, I supp' you're safe enough for the moment Harry, but don't go making enemies out of anyone else. Now, why did you transfer out of Care like you did? I thought you liked my class?" Asked Hagrid

"I do, Hagrid, and sorry about not coming any more, I would have spoken to you about it sooner but I'm not allowed out of the castle much at the moment. The reason I've changed is that I've finally been given information I should have been given last year about which subjects would benefit me the most, plus the chance to take the same subjects as my parents isn't something I was going to pass up. Don't worry I should be able to rejoin the class next year, I've got Hermione taking notes for me." Was Harry's answer.

"That's the final thing I wanna discuss with you two, Hermione." Said Hagrid. "What were you two thinkin' bein' so mean to her? She's bin comin' down ter visit me a lot since Chris'mas. Bin feelin' lonely. Firs' yeh weren' talking to her because o' the Firebolt, now yer not talkin' to her because her cat –"

"– ate Scabbers!" Ron interjected angrily.

"Because her cat acted like all cats do," Hagrid continued doggedly. "She'd cried a fair few times, yeh know. Goin' through a rough time at the moment. Bitten of more'n she can chew, if yeh ask me, all the work she's tryin' ter do. Still found time ter help me with Buckbeak's case, mind … she's found some really good stuff fer me … reckon he'll stand a really good chance with you takin' Lucius Malfoy out of the picture like that, Harry ..."

"Anything for a friend, Hagrid. As for Hermione I was upset that she went to Professor McGonagall without telling me first, but I knew at the time that she was only doing it to protect me and we made things up shortly afterwards and I told her that I knew. She has been more distant towards me lately. I think she's trying to cut back on her nosiness and bossiness by not spending as much time with me, if she was a normal girl and I was allowed to go to Hogsmeade I'd take her out on a date but I can't. As for the matter over Scabbers, I told Ron that he didn't do anything to protect Scabbers from being eaten so he can't blame Hermione, especially when he could have easily done more, it's not like she could have locked Crookshanks up in a cage." Responded Harry.

"And," Harry added, "I've extracted a promise from her that if her work load remains too much for her that she'll give serious thought to dropping one subject of her choice."

"Alright, Harry, I believe you, but**,** Ron, I gotta tell yeh, I thought you valued yer friend more'n a broomstick or a rat, that's all." Said Hagrid

Ron had an uncomfortable look on his face now.

"Really upset, she was, when Black nearly stabbed yeh, Ron. she's got her heart in the right place, Hermione has, an' you not talkin' to her –"

"If she'd just get rid of that cat, I'd speak to her again!" Ron said angrily. "But she's still sticking up for it! it's a maniac, and she won't hear a word against it!"

"Ah, well people can be a bit stupid abou' their pets," said Hagrid wisely. "As for taking Hermione on a date, Harry, you might be surprised at how she'd react, talk to the Weasley Twins they might be able to set you up with somethin'."

They spent the rest of their visit discussing Gryffindor's much improved chances for the Quidditch Cup now that Slytherin had basically managed to remove itself from the running. At nine o'clock, Hagrid walked them back up to the castle.

A large group of people was bunched around the noticeboard when they returned to the common room.

"Hogsmeade, next weekend!" said Ron, craning over the heads to read the new notice. "What d'you reckon?" he added quietly to Harry, as they went sit down.

"The passage into Honeydukes has been closed off so someone else must have known about it." Harry said, even more quietly.

-/-/-/-/-

The Next Day, After Class, Potter/Patil Classroom

"OK, Parvati, Padma, I have something important to talk to you two about. Yesterday Ron and I visited Hagrid the topic of how much Hermione is overworking herself and I said that if Hermione was a normal girl and that if I could go into Hogsmeade I'd take her on a date, Hagrid said that the Weasley twins could help me set something up but I wanted to make sure it was alright with you two first." Said Harry.

"Of course it is, Harry." The twins chorused.

"You don't want to get too romantic with her at this point or she'll get scared off." Said Parvati solo. "This isn't really a date, it's a quiet dinner between friends, nothing more. If Hermione wants it to be more then something between friends then that's what it is but otherwise you're just her friend trying to get her to relax some. No candlelit dinner, but a private room with good food, about the same as the Welcoming Feast would do, but separate, individual servings and decent lighting."

"It will be impossible to arrange everything before Hogsmeade this weekend. Let's see now, you'll need flowers, Arborvitae would be best; the Hogsmeade book-store had a book on floriography last time I was there which will make a nice present. Clothes, Harry, you'll need some nice clothes to wear, there's not an opportunity to get you anywhere near a clothes store, so while your school uniform will do for the most part you will need a different tie and jacket. I'll take your measurements before I go into Hogsmeade. If I see anything else in your size I'll get it, plus I know roughly what size Hermione is so I can get her a nice dress so she has something to wear. Hermione's knee's will buckle and this will be the talk of the Castle for a month or more, and when it gets out that you two only went as friends, girls will be running you ragged trying to get you to date them." She finished.

Leaning over Harry gave Parvati a kiss on the cheek. "You know, Parvati, I think I owe you an apology, I didn't think you were as smart as your sister but it looks like I was wrong you are as smart as your sister, just in a different way, so I'm sorry." He said.

Blushing, Parvati said, "Don't worry about it, Harry, we always had slightly different interests, Padma was always more interested in, well, science stuff while I was interested in people, a bit like yin and yang, and when we started Hogwarts and started thinking about our plan we knew that our lives would be like something out of a bad romance novel involving twins so we figured it was a good idea to get some practice at acting like the characters in those books. Seeing as how we were already good at the 'Can't tell them apart' bit, we couldn't finish each other sentences but, we started working on our 'Different as the sun and moon' act. Saturday is going to be fun, I haven't been able to confuse people into thinking that I'm Padma in a while."

It was at this point that Harry realized something else: just like Hermione and Padma, Parvati liked to talk about the things she liked, it was just that the things she liked were people and how the interacted with each other so that when she talked about it other people drew the wrong conclusions about what she was doing it was their fault, not Parvati's.

"The other thing that I wanted to talk about was how did Gringotts know that a Hogsmeade Weekend was coming up?" Asked Harry. "I mean I know we asked for the meeting to be on the next Hogsmeade Weekend but with next weekend only just having been announced as a Hogsmeade Weekend I realized that the Goblins must have some way of finding out when a Hogsmeade Weekend is further in advance then we do."

"Good point, Harry, but the Hogsmeade Weekend schedule isn't exactly a secret. Students who are known be to allowed to go into Hogsmeade before the year starts are mailed out, or rather their parents are, a list of expected Hogsmeade Weekends before school starts so that they can plan ahead to be free those weekends. Gringotts is probably informed before students are so that they make arrangements to handle the increased level of withdrawals that day made by students, the shopkeepers probably have to be told too, so they can get ready." Answered Padma.

-/-/-/-/-

Later That Night, Gryffindor Common Room

Seeing as he was alone at the moment, Ron had a detention completing overdue work and Hermione was doing some of the mountain of work she had to do, Harry sought out Fred and George.

"Fred, George," He called out. "I need some help with something and was told you two were the people to see."

"Whatever it is little, Harrykins, –" Said the one closer to Harry.

"– Ask and you shall receive." Said the other.

"It's Hermione, you've seen how she's overworking herself, well when Ron and I were down with Hagrid yesterday I said that if I had access to Hogsmeade and that she was the sort of girl who would like that sort of thing I'd take her on a date to get her to relax. Well Hagrid said that she still might respond well to date. Well I've been talking to someone I can trust about the girly side of things, I just need you two to help me arrange a private room and dinner for Sunday night." Harry explained.

"Pretty easy to do, Harry –" They were now level with each other and not far from Harry and the one on the left was speaking.

"–There's some unused private dining rooms just off the Great Hall. –" Now the one on the right

"– And we'll take you down to the kitchens and arrange for food with the House-elves there." This verbal tennis was annoying and Harry resolved to speak to the twins as little as possible.

* * *

Thanks to Tommy King for his beta'ing, Scott Smith, Michael Willmott and Ronnie McMains for typo busting and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of


	8. Chapter 8: Getting To Gringotts

Disclaimer: If you don't know who owns Harry Potter I have to wonder what you're doing here.

* * *

Early Saturday Morning, Potter/Patil Private Classroom

All his years of living with the Dursleys had caused Harry to be an early riser so he was the first to arrive in their private classroom, followed by Padma sometime later. When Parvati arrived she found her sister sitting in Harry's lap helping him advance his study of runes. Harry had noticed that the twins liked sitting in his lap and that he in turn liked them sitting there

"OK I'm going to have to leave for Hogsmeade soon, so, Harry, take off your robes so I can measure you properly." Said Parvati.

After Padma had closed the book they were going over together and scooted out of his lap onto the bench next to him, Harry got up, turned so that he was facing both the twins and then took off his robes, causing both the girls to gasp in amazement for he was wearing very smart, Muggle semi-formal clothes.

"Harry," Said Parvati, "Where did you get that?"

"Strangely enough, my aunt." Said Harry. "She said that we all had to have one set of nice clothes in case of a special occasion or something and she didn't want to be embarrassed by me if they couldn't find someone to look after me so I got clothes that fit me properly just in case. She's also the one that insisted that I had my own underwear because me wearing Dudley's was 'Filthy, disgusting, and not something that will be happening in my house.'"

"That's good to hear, Harry, but I think that it's too good for your date with Hermione tomorrow, so I'll still need your measurements. But it is appropriate for your trip to Gringotts today." Said Parvati, pulling a tape measure out of a pocket and taking off her own robes, which made sense as Harry had noticed that robes, which tended to billow, were not a good choice when you needed to do something delicate.

"Padma, Parvati," Said Harry while Parvati was measuring him. "You two are free tonight, right?"

"Yes, of course we are, Harry, why would you think otherwise?" They coursed.

"Nothing, just making sure. See I figured that I should take my girlfriends on a date before I take my oldest female friend on one, even if it's only to cheer her up, so after I'd made arrangements with the House-Elves for a private dinner between Hermione and I tomorrow I made arrangements for the three of us tonight." Answered Harry.

Apparently this was the correct thing to say for it caused the twins to squeal and hug him. "Of course we'll have dinner with you, Harry." They said together. Harry guessed that this didn't count as them finishing each other's sentences. Maybe they didn't realize what they were doing or they hadn't actually tried to finish each other's sentences.

Or maybe Harry was reading too much into the situation, Padma's and Parvati's reactions were pretty normal, apart from them speaking in plural before, so maybe they just said the same thing at the same time.

Having calmed down, Parvati started talking again. "Harry, I need to finish measuring you then I'll head off to Hogsmeade and Padma can reward you for being a brilliant boyfriend to the two of us." Before returning to measuring him.

"That's nice to hear, Parvati, but my dinner with you and Padma isn't going to be as nice as my one with Hermione. Thanks to you I'm going to have a present to give her, flowers and a nice dress for her and I'm not going to be able to arrange for those things tonight. I couldn't use the Weasley Twins to get anything for the two of you, they might get suspicious and I can't exactly ask you to get something for your own date with me." Said a slightly upset Harry.

"Don't worry about it, Harry, that you thought of it alone is enough. I will however be looking out for something or somethings for Pad and me to wear tonight." Responded Parvati in an attempt to cheer Harry up.

"That's another thing, Parvati, how am I going to pay you back for all of this?" Asked Harry.

"Don't worry about it, Harry. Think of it as my contribution to making Hermione relax. Your actually taking her on a date while I'm buying the flowers, the nice dress she's going to wear and the book, plus it's not like I've got anything else to spend my allowance on, which is something that we should probably talk to you about before the summer." Answered Parvati as she finished up.

"Why would we need to talk about your allowances?" Inquired Harry.

"Par, off you go to Hogsmeade. Harry that something I'll explain later on, there's something more important to talk about." Interjected Padma, guiding Harry back to the seat he had been sitting in before.

Sitting down across her boyfriends lap so that she was side on to him, whereas before she had her back to him she started talking. "Now there is something far more important I think I should talk to you about, and this isn't going to be fun for either of us, there are some interesting traditions associated the signing of a concubine contract."

Having finished this ominous sounding start, Padma paused for breath before continuing. "Just like any other contract for buying something it is considered a wise idea to inspect the goods before signing. In the case of Concubine Contracts or anyother contract that involves binding one human to another, such as marriage contracts, this is especially important to make sure that what is described in the contract is what is actually being sold, you don't want to bind the wrong persona after all. For this reason the purchaser and the girl, or in our case girls, will go of into a side room before the contract is signed and we will strip off so that you can compare us to the physical description in the Contract which will accompany our names and parentage." This last bit had caused her to blush and stop.

This stopping allowed her to see that Harry had become upset again. "Harry," She said. "You're unsure of this again, aren't you?"

"Of course I am, from the things you just said the two of you will become my slaves." Replied Harry.

"No we won't, Harry. The type of Concubine Contract we are looking at will only restrict us so that our husband, you, is the only man we will ever be interested in, which if the girl is sold top the right man isn't a problem and very much like marriage. It can even be useful to the girl, you know how embarrassed Hermione was over her crush on Lockhart? Well she wasn't the only one and being able to avoid crushes on men like him is something I very much look forward to." She responded and snuggled closer to Harry.

"Now there's one other thing. After the you check that we match description matches the Contract we won't get dressed, but rather stay in there while everything else is finished, then the you will come back into the room and puts chokers on us and than we will leave via a Floo in the room. The reason for not getting dressed is symbolic, we entered this world naked and know we will enter your world naked. From what I've read it's both embarrassing and romantic at the same time, it will be the first time you will see us naked and it's all confusing." She continued.

By now Padma's blush had gotten deeper but she still hadn't finished. Harry was right, she was like Hermione in liking to know things and pass them on.

"All this nudity is why Concubines and Arranged Marriages have fallen out of favour in England, the Purebloods think that that sort of thing shouldn't happen while the lights are on and not under the covers. I'm actually surprised that Draco is an only child as his parents where the last know couple to use a Marriage Contract, and that generally means an acceptance of nudity and human sexuality." She finished

-/-/-/-/-

1 p.m., Potter/Patil Private Classroom

"You ready to go, Harry?" Asked Padma.

"Yeah, not sure what I'm going to say though." Answered Harry.

"Probably not much, chances are that meeting face to face like this isn't critical, it just allows things to be moved forward quicker and signing it in person is traditional, at least for someone's first contract or a big contract and this is both. Plus it's possible that you will be signing more than one contract today. There's one for the actual delivery of the remains and their rendering it down into separate products, one or more contracts dealing with selling it and at least one contract for leasing a vault from Gringotts." Responded Padma

"Thanks, Padma, you're really making me feel better." Replied Harry.

"Well chances are we will spend more time talking to the family lawyer than the goblins. While it's not directly related to our business with them, your family lawyer needs to talk to you about what is going on with the Potter Trust, and that could affect the goblins. Plus we need to talk to him about us." She said, that last part rather sheepishly.

"Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Padma, but somehow I don't think it's working. Now what's this about 'us'?" He inquired.

"I sort of did a Hermione." She answered. "When I saw my father last I told him that I would write the contract for you to buy Parvati and me and it turns out that I've bitten off more than I can chew, I've already written to my father and got in contact with his lawyer, so today I can tell your family's lawyer what's going on and to expect to receive letters from both my father's lawyer and me. Plus we need to know how much money you can give father for the contract for Par and me, from what father's said he's planning on writing you into his Will and giving you more money than what you paid for us, but you still need to 'buy' us in the first place."

"Padma, I thought you would be smarter than that. What caused you to do something so silly?" Asked Harry.

"Harry, this contract will define our future, I didn't want anything to come up and surprise us, and by us I mean Par, you and me, later on. I think father let me go ahead with that so that I would learn my limits. You ready to go?" She said.

"Yes, here's the Portkey." He said, pulling said object out of his bag. Once they both had a firm hold on it he said "Coming" to activate it and they disappeared in the swirling colours of a Portkey.

* * *

A/N: OH no, cliffhanger and you want be getting what happens next for two months. Why? Parvati has a character development chapter coming up that was originally part of this but was spun off after I get feed back saying the chapter was "too dense" on certain things, that's also why it is so short

Thanks to Tommy King for his beta'ing, firelordeg, and Alex for typos busting and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of


	9. Chapter 9: Parvati's Side Story

Disclaimer: If you don't know who owns Harry Potter I have to wonder what you're doing here.

* * *

30 minutes later, Hogsmeade

After getting off the carriage from Hogwarts at Hogsmeade Parvati went to Tomes and Scrolls to see if they still had that book on floriography, which they did, and reserved it to pick up later. Next she visited the florist's to find out how much it would cost to arrange for them to discreetly deliver some Arborvitae tomorrow, which led to the revelation that Arborvitae are conifers, and as such the florist didn't normally keep them stocked but he would be able to arrange for their delivery for a not unreasonable, if high, fee.

Gladrags was next. On her last trip she had only been interested in robes and so hadn't paid attention to anything else and apart from robes and Hogwarts uniforms the situation was truly dire. If anything the Magical World seemed to be even further behind in fashion, apart from robes, than anywhere else. Other than robes and Hogwarts uniforms there wasn't that much to choose from either, dresses for girls and some underwear and that was it as far as she could see. And she didn't know which was worse. The dresses were the sort that seemed to show up in old paintings that couldn't be accurate. A corset with a floor length skirt and sleeves attached, some with rather large collars. Thankfully none of them had any ruffles at all and none of them looked like they had balloons hidden inside them like some of the paintings showed. And the selection of styles and colours was very limited. Checking the clothes revealed, as Parvati expected, that they lacked tags and likely sizes, meaning that if she guessed Hermione's size wrong it likely wouldn't matter as the dresses would be designed for a larger range of women.

If she brought them, they were really gowns and way too fancy for either Harry's date with Hermione tomorrow, which was really a dinner between friends, or his date with her and her sister tonight, which now that she thought about it, was really a first date.

The panties in the underwear section were about what she had expected, but the bras, uuhh. It looked like that the Wizarding World had never heard of Alphabet Bras. And the limited selection of muggle manufacture, likely in attempt to get sales from the muggleborn, was heavily slanted towards the larger sizes that no schoolgirl should ever need.

With what she had talked about with Pad for non-school clothes for next year if everything went to plan this wouldn't do, they weren't right for day-to-day wear and didn't show off the girl wearing them, she'd known that for the interesting and suggestive ideas they would have to buy from a muggle store before the year began, but it looked like they wouldn't be able to get anything they wanted clothes-wise from wizarding stores next year and you couldn't owl order muggle stores.

This gave Parvati an idea, one that she hoped would make Hermione see her in a better light. Her father would be upset at first when he saw how much money she would be spending this month, but when he saw what she would be spending it on she thought he would be happier. Now, onto the jeweller's.

When they had visited their father over the Christmas Holidays after hearing their plans he'd arranged for Nalini, their second mother and his concubine, to give them The Talk. The Talk had covered more than just its normal subject matter, it had also for some reason covered a slightly related part of their culture that their parents correctly believed they hadn't been introduced to before: Body Jewelry.

Parvati had thought she knew jewellery but she was wrong. The first thing Hoshma had shown and modeled for them had been something called panjas, rings and bracelets, each bracelet had two rings, worn on the index and ring fingers, attached to it by chains, they'd also been shown a version for their feet. There was nothing like that in the store, all the rings were promise, engagement and wedding rings with a smattering of showpiece rings for rich people to show off how rich they were, nothing that was or could be connected to a bracelet of which they stocked none.

Parvati had been shocked when Hoshma had shown them the necklaces, heavy things with lots of jewels on the front part in slightly different lengths so that you could wear several of them at once and people could still tell them apart on your naked chest. The only ones the jeweller had in stock were dainty little things that would be hard to make out and were short enough to fit inside a decent collar. They reminded her of the waist-chain they had been shown, that while somewhat embarrassing, both Padma and she had resolved to get their own as soon as possible because they liked the way it highlighted a woman's hips like racy underwear without her having to wear any.

Worst of all were the earrings, if Parvati thought she had been embarrassed by the waist-chain it was nothing compared to how she felt when Hoshma was done talking about piercings. They had both been well aware that your ears could be pierced but the other locations were eye openers. They'd seen jewellery for belly buttons before, but the thought that such jewellery could be held in place by a piercing was new, just where that piercing was had been surprising as Hoshma had put it on, instead of going through the knot of flesh inside the belly button it went through the bit of skin at the top.

That had been the piercing that had shocked them the least. Both their mother and Hoshma had had their nipples pierced when they knew they wouldn't be having any more children and therefore wouldn't be breast feeding again (Their mother sometime after they were born and Hoshma a couple of years ago). The revelation of those piercings however paled however beside Hoshma revealing and showing them her clitoral hood piercing and clitoris piercings. All the earrings in the store were of the clip-on variety and she wasn't going to use them anywhere near her nipples or vagina, maybe on her belly-button, if she could find the right design.

There was no rule against students visiting Diagon Alley via Floo and nothing set up to stop them or monitor them. In fact there couldn't be, Gringotts maintained only a single location in Diagon Ally. And as most students weren't prepared to keep large amounts of gold of in their dorm rooms where it could be stolen, they required access to Diagon Alley and Gringotts so they had money to spend, otherwise the Hogsmeade visits were pointless. However if you where gone from Hogsmeade for too long it was noticed and they started looking for you and you got in trouble, normally a suspension of your Hogsmeade privileges. With her delay while examining the shops she had already been seen around Hogsmeade for a while and so for the purposes of visiting Diagon Alley she would be counted as part of the next group of students, who had yet to arrive, so she would have enough time.

Using the Floo in the Hogs Head instead of the Three Broomsticks to reduce the chances of being seen traveling to Diagon Alley and increase the time available to her, she Floo'd to the Leaky Cauldron. A quick look in the stores in Diagon Alley revealed they were no better, so Parvati, armed with the full knowledge of how bad fashion was in the Wizarding World made an extra large withdrawal from the Gringotts account she had, she had a lot of books to buy and even more reading to do. Some of the money she had converted to pounds, there would be just enough time for her to visit a nearby muggle dress shop and buy three dresses suitable for the dates Harry was taking Hermione, her sister and her on over the next two nights.

The dresses she got were the simplest and most generic dresses they had in stock but were appropriate for the dates Harry was taking the girls on. She also purchased dresses a bit too big for their intended wearers, that way if she got the sizes wrong she could always use shrinking charms to make them smaller. Hermione got a periwinkle blue dress with white accents. For her sister and herself Parvati had an immense stroke of luck, the store had a pair of identical blue dresses with sliver accents in about their size, the accent pieces were on the same side of the dresses but Parvati thought she knew a spell to change that, if not all the books she would soon be buying on clothes design should fix that. It would be the perfect chance for Harry to get used to dealing with them while they were identical but while still allowing him an out so that he could tell them apart. Plus they needed practice for when they were seen in public with Harry and the 'Left and Right Twins' wasn't something they had much practice with as it was almost a subset of the 'Can't tell them apart' act, but hopefully they would look good on Harry's arms at some point.

* * *

Thanks to Tommy King for his beta'ing, firelordeg, and Alex for typos busting and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of

Multiple spell checking drafts by myself and others and when I post it there's still mistakes, thanks magitech


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: If you don't know who owns Harry Potter I have to wonder what you're doing here

AN: This chapter is longer than the last one, enjoy

* * *

Gringotts Portkey Receiving Room, Moments Later

A brief wind and swirl of colour unceremoniously dumped Harry and Padma onto the floor of the room in front of a goblin in armor. After they stood up the goblin spoke "Mr. Potter, I am Guardsman Slipknot, I will escort you and your companion to the office where Gangrene and your Family Lawyer, Mr. Juris are waiting."

Following the goblin out of the room he led them down a hall to another room with nothing on the door. Opening the door they found a nondescript room with a long table running down the middle of it, short end towards them. Sitting on the left there was a goblin, presumably Gangrene, on the right a man they had never seen before and two empty chairs.

Standing up the goblin started speaking. "Mr. Potter, it's nice to meet you. I am Gangrene and the person sitting across from me is Mr. Prudence Juris, your family lawyer, and your friend's name is?"

"Padma Patil." Answered Harry.

"Very well then, Mr. Potter, Miss Patil, if you would sit down we can get started." Said Gangrene.

They took the seats next to Mr. Juris with Harry in the middle so he could turn to either Mr. Juris or Padma for advice.

Once they were seated Gangrene resumed talking. "Mr. Potter, in your letter you said you estimated that the carcass is five feet across and one hundred and twenty feet long, is this correct? In your letter you said that in the course of slaying the beast its eyes had been ruptured and there was a stab wound in the roof of its mouth, could you be more specific? And could you describe the current condition of the carcass?"

Turning so that he could see his lawyer, who simply nodded for him to answer, Harry responded. "I remember it trying to swallow me, so, yes I would say it's at least five feet around and one hundred and twenty feet long, tapering down somewhat for about half its length and after that slimming down much more rapidly. As for how I killed it, well after Fawkes, that's the headmaster's Phoenix, pecked its eyes out, I goaded it and when it tried to eat me, I stabbed up through the roof of its mouth with Gryffindor's Sword. Last time I saw it, which was shortly after Christmas, it didn't look any different than the day I killed it."

"Most impressive, Mr Potter. Your use of Gryffindor's Sword is going to cause some problems inside Gringotts, but nothing that should affect you." Said Gangrene.

"And what problems would those be, Gangrene?" Asked Harry.

"Magical items, particularly powerful magical items, are said to be magically linked to their true owner so as to only work for their true owner or to seek some way to return to their true owner, the classic example would be King Arthur's sword Excalibur, only the true King of England, Arthur, could pull it from the stone. Some goblins, who let their greed get away from them, believe that this means that all goblin made **artifacts** are really the property of the goblin who made them and are only leased to their human owners for the owner's lifetime. Goblins with more artistic tendencies, such as myself, view this as folly, those **artifacts** that are powerful enough to have a true owner will, as part of their wyrd, their fate or fundamental mystical make-up, find their way to their true owners, and for other things, like Galleons, it makes no sense. Personally I feel much better that people simply can't buy items such as Gryffindor's Sword. Plus in the case of Gryffindor's Sword there is now an added complication." Explained Gangrene.

"There is?" Asked Harry.

"Yes, Mr. Potter. You see Gryffindor's Sword is made of Goblin Steel and Goblin Steel imbibes things that make it stronger, so since you slew a Basilisk with Gryffindor's Sword it is now permanently coated in Basilisk Venom, making it extremely dangerous to handle, and you, Mr. Potter, one of the people who have forged Gryffindor's Sword. It will be quite interesting to see how those who believe that goblin made **artifacts** are only leased respond to this." Said Gangrene.

"Now, returning to the business that brought as here today." Continued Gangrene. "This," And he slid what looked like the first of many contracts across the table to Mr. Juris. "Is our estimate for the costs of rendering the carcass into separate components and Gringotts offer to buy the meat, along with estimates of total cost to render and total money raised from the sale based on the description of the carcass."

"Gangrene," Asked Mr. Juris. "Are these numbers correct? In preparation for this meeting I investigated past dealings of this nature, both with Gringotts and other establishments, and I found that rendering costs normally run to ten Galleons per ton and your offer is for eight per tonne, and the price for the meat is in line with the wholesale price of beef in Tokyo."

"Mr. Juris, Gringotts provides rendering services on a cost plus basis. For Mr. Potter's information that means that you pay however much it costs us plus a little bit extra, normally 10%. Now in this case due to the nature and size of the carcass we believe that will be easier and therefore cheaper to render it, thus the lower cost. As for the price we are prepared to pay for the flesh, it is a delicacy among goblins." Answered Gangrene.

When Mr. Juris handed Harry the paper his eyes went wide. According to this the goblins expected the carcass to weigh around eighty one tonnes (Metric for some reason, every were else in the magical world people seemed to use the 'Imperial' system of measurements, Harry knew they used different weights and things but didn't understand the difference, he'd ask Padma about it later) and at eight Galleons per tonne processing fee they expected the cost to come to six hundred and forty eight Galleons and didn't expect the cost to go above seven hundred Galleons unless it was a lot heavier or more difficult to process then they expected. They were also offering five Galleons per Kilogram flesh and expected half the carcass' weight to be edible. Their expected purchase of forty and a half tonnes, or forty thousand, five hundred Kilograms, paying Harry more then two hundred and two thousand Galleons in the process and the paper mentioned something called 'Leavings'. Handing the paper to Padma, who's eyes went wide in turn, Harry asked. "Do I need to sign anything yet?"

"No, Mr. Potter, not yet." Said Mr. Juris. "There's still much to talk about before you sign anything, what to do with the rest of the carcass and where the money is going to go."

"What do we need to talk about next then?" Inquired Harry

"I think the blood is the simplest. There are several potions that use it, but with no source in so long alternative formulations or other alternatives have been found. From my inquires it might be possible to sell some to various alchemists but most of it will have to be disposed of with the other leavings." Said Gangrene.

"Leavings?" Asked Harry. "I noticed a mention of them on the sheet before, but what are they?"

"Simply put they are what is left behind at the end, the guts of the beast for the most part." Responded Gangrene. "In this case, as we are dealing with an animal we hope to be able to sell them for fertiliser, not much but still something." He smiled. "The actual sales of anything other the flesh will, in order to ensure that you get the best prices will be on commission for the usual ten percent, split between the salesman and Gringotts." Gangrene pulled two more 'contracts' out of the pile and handed them to Mr. Juris. "Our expected sale figures."

Seeing Harry's look of befuddlement Mr. Juris decided that an explanation was in order. "Commission is a standard business practices were somebody if is doing something for someone else, such as selling something, gets a share of how much money is made in order to encourage him to perform better, a ten percent share is the norm. In this case the goblin who makes the sale will get five percent while Gringotts will get another five percent."

After a moment he handed the first piece of parchment to Harry who was rather surprised at said. Potions ingredients normally went for Knuts and Sickles for very small amount, normally at most a single phial, some ingredients cost more, like Boomslang skin which went for 1 Galleon for several pinches of shavings in the bottom of a phial (after last year's brewing of the Polyjuice Potion Harry had made sure to stock up on potions ingredients of all types) but the goblins were expecting to sell several phials to each alchemist that brought some, there weren't that many, no more than twenty, at a starting price of one hundred Galleons a phial.

The 'leavings' as Gangrene called them weren't expected to go for anywhere near as much, they were expecting to sell each tonne for as much as they paid for a kilogram of the flesh, but there were several tonnes of leavings expected.

"Let me see, next is the venom. Again there once was a market for it in potion ingredients but that doesn't exist anymore. I assume that you don't want to sell it to poisoners, Mr. Potter?" Gangrene inquired and Harry shock his head. "I quite agree with you there Mr. Potter. However in my asking around I have found a company in the United States that thinks that because the Basilisk is the 'King of Snakes' it might be able to develop a universal snake anti-venom from Basilisk venom. I see that you are uncomfortable with charging for something that may save lives, that speaks highly of you, however it may be possible to work out a deal were they only pay you if they develop something, either a one-time payment or a share in the profits." Said Gangrene.

Visibly more comfortable Harry motioned for Gangrene to continue. "Next up are the eyes. Now you said that the Phoenix Fawkes clawed its eyes out correct?" A nod from Harry confirmed this. "Yes, well no one is prepared to leave a Basilisk's eyes intact, so it isn't going to cause a problem. Like the blood and venom, there are potions that use powdered Basilisk eyes that have fallen by the wayside, but it may be marketable as a male performance aid in south-east Asia." Finished Gangrene in somewhat disgusted tones.

Leaning over to whisper in his ear, Padma said "Don't worry, Harry, I'll explain it later."

Seeing that the matter of what they would be selling the eyes been addressed, or rather would be later, he handed over the next piece of parchment. When Harry saw what they were predicting it was ridiculous, they expected get be able to sell the ground up eyeballs for two to three Galleons a gram, and they estimated based on the dimensions supplied in his letter earlier that the eyes would be about a foot across, yielding a thousand grams or more each, and the total worth to be at least four thousand Galleons.

Once the parchment had been passed around Gangrene continued. "Now the teeth and bones, again there was once some demand for them in potions, but with the lack of supply it is no longer there. Some of our artisans are interested in making scabbards out of the fangs and there is always a market, if not much of one, for bone and we might be able to generate some demand for it. Now, Mr. Potter, how did Gryffindor's Sword come into you possession?"

"I, ah pulled, it out of the Sorting Hat, which Fawkes brought with him" Harry answered.

"I think that I am going to want a memory of your encounter with the beast for viewing in a pensive before the day is over, if that is acceptable to you, Mr. Juris?" Inquired Gangrene, a nod from Mr. Juris and a whispered "Later" is Harry's ear prompted him to continue. "So, Mr. Potter, when you pulled Gryffindor's Sword from the Sorting Hat, did you also pull out its scabbard?"

"Sorry, no I didn't." Replied Harry.

"Not a problem, Mr. Potter. In that case a new scabbard, made from one of the fangs of Slytherin's Basilisk, would be most fitting. If you are prepared to donate the fang I'm sure I can arrange for Gringotts to convert it free of charge, assuming that a suitable fang is available." Said Gangrene.

"A most generous and likely profitable offer for all involved." Responded Mr. Juris, which reassured Harry as it soundly like the right things to do, but he wasn't sure. "The big question is who owns the sword however."

"A most complicated question, Mr. Juris. Fundamentally it would belong to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry like most objects belonging to the Founders, however Mr. Potter has some claim to it as he drew it forth from the Sorting Hat, it isn't his to keep, but he does have to right to use it in any circumstance where he would be permitted to have a sword. A more important question is, where is it currently, Mr. Potter?" Asked Gangrene.

"I, ah, gave it to the Headmaster, it seemed that as the sword was Gryffindor's it belonged to the school, so it felt right to give it to him." Responded Harry.

"Indeed you are correct, Mr. Potter. And I suspect that the feeling you had that it belongs to the school is more evidence. Now, onto the last part of the beast: its skin. Normally shed snake skins are useless but between the apparent size, age and some past experience we have had with them we suspect that they might be useful. Mr. Potter, could you give me some more details, like the number and rough size and age of each skin?"

Giving Mr. Juris a moment to indicate if he shouldn't respond, Harry launched into his explanation. "The smallest skin was twenty feet long and it still would have been five feet across, we guessed that it dated from the time of the Founders. After that there were nine more skins, each ten feet longer then the last and I have no idea of their age, but one skin every hundred years would work out, going from smallest to largest, so the thirty foot skin would be nine hundred years old and so on."

"Yes, I suspect that you are correct about the interval at which it shed its skins at. Now in our past experience in dealing with Basilisks, which admittedly so rather long ago, we discovered that each Basilisk skin, unlike normal snake skins, is actually composed of several different layers with different proprieties, sort of like the armour Muggles are putting on their 'tanks' these days, and as the Basilisk gets bigger each shed may contain more layers of a different type, compared to the skin shed by a normal snake which contains only a single layer of skin that is the same as every other layer it has. So for this reason we think that the shed skins might actually be useful, as they are probably of comparable thickness to a normal hide. The smaller ones will provide a light leather, getting slightly thicker as it gets older, for the skin on the actual carcass, unless it's used for armour it will probably have to be separated like the beast had shed it to get anything useful." Gangrene explained.

"Now like the bones there is not an actual market for the skins, but we believe this is remediable. The Wizarding World is fascinated with you, as evidenced by such things as those 'Boy-Who-Lived' Adventure books, which are, I believe are something that Mr. Juris wishes to discuss with you today. Anyway, as such we believe that by marketing the skin and bones as coming from a Basilisk you slew they will sell particularly well, especially if the first public announcement comes in the wake of the revelation that Gryffindor's Sword has a new scabbard, the fact that the Basilisk was Slytherin's will only help sales. It is also possible that by keeping the leavings from the Basilisk separate at the fertiliser company we sell to might be able to sell some sort of special Boy-Who-Lived fertiliser. Now, are there any questions?" Asked Gangrene.

"Yes, I have been advised" Said Harry, nodding towards Padma. "That I should not have the proceeds from this sale deposited into my Trust Vault but rather a different vault, that way I would be able use the money without any limits placed upon my Trust Vault. It was also mentioned that my wife or wives would enjoy have clothes made from the skin and it was suggested that I keep part of the skins for that purpose. On that note, how good an armor will the skin make? Given the number of dangerous situations I find myself in something like that would be most useful."

"All are excellent ideas, Mr. Potter. Financial independence this early in your life, as long as you don't overspend and deplete the funds, would be most useful in gaining experience for managing the Potter Trust when you get older. I must advise you however that Gringotts isn't a bank as the term is used in the Muggle world, we are closer in nature to a company that provides high security storage space. As such we don't give interest on account balances and use of a vault comes at a small fee of seven sickles a month. If you wish for your new found wealth to grow I suggest talking to Mr. Juris after I leave about investing it in the Muggle world, otherwise it will simply gather dust in a vault and slowly decrease." Responded Gangrene.

"Dressing yourself and your Lady or Ladies in this leather would undoubtedly help sales, so it is an idea I fully support." He continued. "I suggest keeping the first half of the largest shed skin for use by yourself and Lady or Ladies for use as clothing, if it later proves to be too much it can always be sold. Storing it in the extra vault you inquired about paying for until such time as you need it is a good idea as if it is stored in your Trust Vault you may have trouble accessing it if you need it. I will not be able to tell you how good an armour the hide of the beast will make until I have the chance to examine it myself. I would suggest only selling it to reputable organisations, such as the British Department of Magical Law Enforcement." It was at this point Gangrene handed over the last two pieces of parchment.

The first one dealt with the teeth, the goblins expected four large fangs, possibly up to a metre in length and up to one hundred smaller fangs ten to twenty centimetres in length. Even removing one of the large fangs to allow for crafting a new scabbard for Gryffindor's Sword the goblins expected that more than a thousand 'knick-knacks', small knives and statues and the like, could be made from the material available, based on previous sales of such 'Harry Potter, The Boy-Who-Lived' memorabilia, coupled with the fact that it was Slytherin's Basilisk that Harry had slain, the goblins expected that they would sell for about twenty to thirty Galleons apiece, of which Harry could expect to see five Galleons for raw materials, plus additional fees for use of his name. And that only covered the fangs, not the actual bones.

The last one dealt with the skins, the goblins expected to get one hundred square metres of skins from the carcass and that armoured robes for an adult would require between two and three square metres and due to the short supply of material they didn't recommend making them in smaller sizes. Harry could understand that, any robes he got made now likely wouldn't fit him in a year or so and it wasn't like he was going to find another thousand year old Basilisk to kill to if he needed more skin. And if he needed them early he could always roll the sleeves up or something, it was something he could talk about with Parvati later seeing as how he was spending so much time with Padma today.

The goblins estimated that the skin on the carcass could be split into at least ten separate usable layers which was a lot of material. They unfortunately didn't think that they would have much luck trying to get the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to buy armoured robes at this time and planned to sell the skin of the carcass last in the hope that they changed their minds, they had no idea how much those would sell for. The estimated selling price for the skin suitable for use in normal clothing would sell for fifty Galleons or more with the proper identification with his name.

"Gangrene, I appreciate the work your department has put in in creating these estimates when you haven't seen the carcass yet, and I understand how inaccurate they can be." Said Mr. Juris. "But there's a couple of things missing from these estimate on the skins. I realize that Mr. Potter has only just told you the approximate size of the shed skins but I was wondering if you could give us an estimate of how much skin those will provide? And forgive, but for some reason the estimates only seem to cover the skin on the body, not the head, why is that?"

"In answer to your first question, Mr. Juris, from what Mr. Potter says once the Basilisk hit a diameter of one hundred and fifty centimetres or five feet it only grew longer meaning that the amount of skin will scale linearly, so if we assume an average yield of fifty square metres from the shed skin a conservative estimate would give a total yield of four hundred square metres, possibly easily rising to as high as five hundred square metres. This of course assumes that the skin is usable. The reason that the skin about the head isn't listed is that the shape it is in will likely render it unsellable commercially, however if one were to take it to a tailor or leather-worker with a specific request they could no doubt make what you wanted. For this reason I intended to place any and all trimmings, such as the skin from around the head, into the vault you plan to lease, Mr. Potter. Now are there any more questions?" Replied Gangrene.

"Yes," Said Harry. "Why is everything listed in the Metric system? I've never seen them used in the Magical World before and have to admit I don't really know the difference between the Metric and 'Imperial' measurements."

"Pretty much all international trade uses the Metric system, Mr. Potter, that's why. Even if most of the Basilisk is sold here in Britain it is easier to only work with a single system of measurements throughout a contract, more importantly The Weights and Measures Act of 1824 post-dates the Statue of Secrecy and as a result many in Magical Britain are prepared to pretend that it doesn't exist if they think it will benefit them in some way if they can get away with it, so we at Gringotts use Metric measurements in our dealings with them to prevent this. I will provide you with a conversation chart before you leave today, now unless there's anything else I'll have the contracts written up?" Answer Gangrene. Seeing that no one moved to talk he gathered up the papers and left the room.

* * *

Thanks to Tommy King for his beta'ing, firelordeg, Jim Trigg, Scott Smith, william rice, Scott Marshall, Jonas, blm540813, traveler_of_the_void and Alex for typos busting and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of.

Thanks also go out to traveler_of_the_void for the name of the Potter Family lawyer, Prudence Juris


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